Teknokrats have been urged to desist from sitting on the fringes but bring on board their expertise, skills and knowledge to support the industrialisation drive to facilitate the socio-economic development of the country.

Teknokrats are critical partners in accelerating and sustaining the industrialisation sector of the country and therefore must not renege on their mandate.

Professor Joshua Owusu Sekyere, Vice Chancellor of the Cape Coast Technical University (CCTU) who made the call was speaking on the theme "Teknokrats, the critical partners in restoring, accelerating and sustaining Ghana's industrialization" at the launch of the 10th Biennial Congress of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KUNST) on Tuesday.

He noted that Governments in the past had paid lip service to boosting industrialisation but with the introduction of the one district, one factory (1D1F) program, the narrative would change.

He indicated that it was time more teknokrats were trained because their services would be needed more than ever in the history of the nation.

“The President has said we should not be spectators but citizens. He does not want us to sit aloof, waiting to see what will happen, but get involved. Let us make our expertise, skills and knowledge available to help transform the nation," he stated.

"The success of the 1D1F, One District, One Dam, the Planting for Food and Jobs and Planting for Development and Export to some extent depends on us, the teknokrats," he said, adding that a teknokrat could do a lot to impact industrialization if he does his work well.

Prof Owusu Sekyere said for the President's "Ghana Beyond Aid" vision to become a reality, there ought to be radical interventions to transform the production capacity of the country.

"We cannot carry on as usual and expect things to change for us as a nation. Radical changes and approaches have to be adopted to get us out of the quagmire we have found ourselves in," he stated.

He further underscored the need to introduce and adopt scientific innovations as the nation prepared to industrialise, stressing that scientific innovation remained the bedrock of every industrialised nation.

Mrs. Eunice Odisha Ahmoako, the Global President of the KNUST Alumni, stressed the need for Ghana to embark on a new era of industrialisation and encouraged the technocrats to carry out their critical mandate to keep the wheel of industrialization drive in the country going.