A multi-purpose resource centre designed to promote quality product development of jewellery makers in the Northern Sector of the country has been inaugurated in Kumasi on Wednesday.
The centre, which is equipped with modern tools and equipment is the brainchild of the local branch of the Federation of Ghanaian Jewellers and would among others, offer short-duration business management and efficiency in technical skills training for the jewellery makers.
Estimated to cost several millions of cedis, the project was co-financed by the federation and Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) under its IDEAS fund with support from SPEED Ghana. In an address, Mr Kofi Asomaning, a lecturer at the Department of Industrial Art of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), underscored the need to raise the standard of jewellery making to enable the country to benefit from its export. He was not happy that out of the over 200 goldsmiths and jewellers in Kumasi alone, a little below 10 per cent use state-of-the-art equipment in their work, describing the development as a disincentive to the jewellery industry.
The use of obsolete tools, he said had over the years stifled the progress of the industry as it had resulted in less quality work, loss of resources and time as well as the inability to meet the diverse needs and tastes of both Ghanaians and foreigners.
Mr Barnabas Sefa-Boakye, the Project Director, disclosed that the centre would not only serve the needs of members of the federation, but would also provide the opportunity to students of the Industrial Art Department of KNUST to undertake practical attachment to boost their knowledge.
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