Commercialize the output of research works – Dr. Oteng Adjei tells CSIR-BRRI

The Building and Road Research Institute (BRRI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has been asked by the Sector Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr. Joe Oteng Adjei, to commercialize the output of it research works in order to generate money to make the Institute financially autonomous.

Dr. Oteng-Adjei maintains that by commercializing the output of the research works, the Institute stands to benefit financially from domestic and foreign businesses, and organizations which access the research findings for their operations.

He therefore further informed the BRRI of the willingness of the Ministry for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI) to collaborate and work together to explore means by which this initiative could be made realized.

His pronouncement comes to reinforce the call on the BRRI earlier, to become ‘financially self-reliant’ within the next three years ahead.

The Minister said this at the inauguration of the National Artisan Training Centre, and the official opening of the maiden artisan training workshop at Fumesua in the Ejisu Juben Municipality of the Ashanti Region.

The Centre is intended be used for training builders in the use of local materials such as clay burnt bricks, compressed earth blocks and Pozzolana Cement for housing constructions among others.

At this Centre, contractors, built environment professionals, artisans, producers of local building materials among others would receive competence-based, cost-saving modern techniques and effective technologies developed by CSIR-BRRI to achieve better outputs in housing delivery.

The creation of the National Artisan Training Centre was made possible through the collaboration of the Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry, and the CSIR-BRRI whose research findings is revealed to have identified local materials as alternative to imported building materials.

About 50 artisans are going to receive training free of charge. The Centre also plans to organize such training programmes quarterly on both sponsored and fee-paying basis with the view of helping to reduce the avoidable 15-20% wastage, and the poor workmanship associated with Ghanaian artisans.

It was also made public that, the national housing deficit is presently estimated to be over 1,500,000 units and increasing annually. This huge deficit is said to be posing serious social and environmental problems to the country. However, it is anticipated the utilization of local materials for mass production of affordable housing units can mitigate these problems.

According to Dr. Oteng-Adjei , the Government spends about $250 million annually to import construction materials into the country. However, with the findings of the CSIR-BRRI about the effectiveness of local materials as alternative to the foreign imports, the Government has come out with a policy for the construction industry to utilize 60% of local materials by the year 2020.

The Government thus by this initiative have affirmed its trust in the CSIR-BRRI hoping that the Institute could provide the building and construction industry with cost effective and affordable housing delivery.

The Industry is said to contribute approximately 12% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), making it the second highest contributor. The contributions of the Industry is believed to have significantly aided Government in alleviating poverty, as it’s provides both skilled and unskilled jobs for the youth and other professional builders.