CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
by Samuel Sarpong, Ghana, July 1998
THEME = SOCIAL ACTION
In the north eastern suburbs of Kumasi, Ghana's second largest
city,
Mr Suame has created a business - the Suame Magazine -
where about 5,000 craftsmen are making a living by collecting,
sorting out and working on scrap metal
and rejected spare parts from vehicles
The shop floor's air is laced with the smoke of smouldering metal and the odour of carbon monoxide. However, there is a hidden order to the chaos here. Mountains of scrap are being turned into spare parts for cars and also into other items. A visitor to the Suame Magazine will be astounded by the shriek from metal upon metal. The mechanics in Kumasi's small garages and workshops have no formal education, but they repair and rehabilitate old vehicles and machinery, and transform scrap material using relatively primitive tools.
It's common to see people coming to the Suame Magazine to buy abandoned car shells in the hope of fitting them with parts obtained from the Magazine. The high cost of brand new cars has given impetus to the fabrication of spare parts to piece together the often abandoned vehicles. Some workers who previously commuted to work by public transport, have now painstakingly "assembled" abandoned cars and are now proud owners of a family car.
Kwame Aguda had to abandon his 15-year-old Ford because of lack of spare parts. Now he's zooming confidently along the roads. And one can hardly hear the sound of his engine. His joy has been made possible because of the flourishing market for car spare parts and engines being worked on by the Suame artisans.
Many vehicles which have hitherto been abandoned or parked in garages for lack of spare parts, are now healthy enough to join traffic queues. Because of their ingenuity, these mechanics have forced vehicle insurance companies to keep a watchful eye that the car they have insured is in fact the same car which is wizzing along the roads. It's not unknown to find a Renault 20 GTL fitted with the engine of a Datsun 200.
Back-street mechanics service, repair and rebuild as much as 80% of Ghana's ageing vehicles fleet. They do all the mechanical, body, electrical and other work necessary to keep Ghana moving. These mechanics have learnt to make vehicle and machinery spare parts that were unavailable during the nation's economic crisis in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Due to shortage of foreign exchange it was proving impossible to import the necessary spare parts. This is when these highly skilled, self-taught men came into their own. Their greatest asset has been their resilience. "In the past, we were a despised lot", says Osei Kwadwo, who has been involved in the Suame Magazine for over 20 years. "But that is changing now". Despite official neglect over the years, the informal sector of industry has played a dynamic role in providing income-earning opportunities and serving the needs of the low- income population for inexpensive manufactured goods.
Today, the long history of struggle by these workers is bearing fruit as they have won recognition from the government. The present Rawlings administration has supported these "indigenous engineers" by providing them with the necessary technology, training and credit. It has extended the training-unit concept nation-wide through an innovative organisation, the "Ghana Regional Appropriate Technology Industrial Service" (GRATIS) which provides on-site training in product development.
The Technology Consultancy Centre of the University of Science and Technology in Kumasi has operated in Suame Magazine for the 12 years through its Intermediate Technology Training Unit (ITTU), providing training to upgrade the skills of mechanics in informal workshops, and to teach them basic accounting and management methods.
The government has also helped to establish a pilot programme to provide credit to small operators in complexes like Suame Magazine. Recipients include a Mechanics C-operative, established to purchase and share equipment, such as lathes and crank-shaft grinders.
The National Garage Owners Association which groups these indigenous engineers, guarantees the loans which are provided through the SSB Bank, a state financial institution, on commercial terms.
Averaging about $3,000 per project, the money has already helped small mechanics make significant gains in quality and competence. Commenting on the current assistance to the "indigenous engineers", Yaw Mensah, a mechanic, explains that the training that he has been offered through the ITTU will enable him to improve the quality of jobs provided to his clients.
Following the success chalked up by the Magazine, efforts are being made by the government to group all artisans over the country in given localities where they can enjoy similar benefits.
Presently, in view of the congestion at the Suame Magazine, the government has acquired a plot of land to house other mechanics who want to avail themselves of the technical improvements offered by the training and credit schemes. It has also intensified the ITTU programmes throughout the country to help speed up the pace of technological advancement, by training apprentices in appropriate technology development.
Atta Poku, a beneficiary of the government training programme, is convinced of the government's commitment to their cause. "The government has reason to believe in us. Why? Because Government sees what happens to those Ghanaian engineers who received a formal education and who possess a whole list of Degrees. They bask in a host of theoretical knowledge but when it comes to practicalities, they are lost". A few years ago, President Rawlings visited the Suame Magazine. He was clearly awed by what he saw there - Workers in the Magazine and small garages are breaking new ground in the country's development.
For Osei Kwadwo and his colleagues, the fact of being able to do something constructive with their lives is a dream come true.
END
CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
PeaceLink 1998 - Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgement