Ghanaians need a change of mind - Professor Elsie Effah Kaufmann

Dean of School of Engineering Sciences, University of Ghana, Professor Elsie Effah Kaufmann, has admonished Ghanaians to have a positive change of mind towards indigenous products.

The National Science and Maths Quiz mistress asserts that, Ghanaians choose imported products, goods and services over locally manufactured and produced ones.

The Associate Professor, while speaking on the UTV late night news segment said that, she took students on field excursions to hospitals, to equip them with real-world work experience.

Professor Kaufmann explained that these students when asked their views about locally manufactured hospital supplies, their responses were not very encouraging.
They argued that there is little hope in Ghanaian manufacturers because they haven't seen them produce such things and prefer to purchase them from foreign manufacturers.

Reacting to this, Professor Kaufmann urged that Ghanaians must have a change of mind and accept Ghanaian-made products and equipment in order for the nation to advance.

“I used to take my students to the hospitals, field trips, to have on-handwork experience, so we used to ask the doctors and the nurses, the nurses especially, if we manufacture some of the equipment and bring it, are they going to use it? they said no, because they don’t trust us and they have not seen Ghanaians manufacturing such items, so they prefer to buy them outside”.

“We haven’t gotten there yet , we are not used to it , but if you don’t give us the chance how do we improve , there are some countries, I don’t want to mention names , they started car production , initially their cars were not of quality, but nowadays they manufacture and we all buy from them ,their people understood them, that they need to learn how to do it ., Maybe it wasn’t the best at the beginning but they were patronizing it, and it encouraged them to do it better , but for Ghana, who is coming to buy the things that we produce here?, Ghana, we like things that we import, that is part of our problems , just look at where the Cedi has depreciated to, all is part, with a lot of importation, so we have to change our mindset”.