Frank Awuah used a variety of years in the United Kingdom operating for key engineering providers which include British Rail and London Transportation, where he attained substantially skill and encounter in what he named motor repair machining. On returning to Ghana in the late 1970s he made a decision to set up his very own compact business in Suame Magazine, Kumasi, but he struggled to get started off mainly because even although he had enough money the device resources that he needed have been not readily available regionally. His fortunes changed, nevertheless, when he contacted the Technological innovation Consultancy Centre (TCC) of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).
In 1979 the TCC received funding from the Intermediate Technology Development Team (ITDG) of London to import great employed device instruments to support the institution of four tiny engineering enterprises. Two of these enterprises had been leased workshop accommodation at the Suame Intermediate Technologies Transfer Unit (ITTU) when functions began in August 1980. Frank Awuah noticed this advancement and arrived to the TCC to see if he could be aided in a similar way. He as well was delivered with workshop space at the Suame ITTU where by he begun operating with a smaller cylinder re-uninteresting device, but he was pressured to hold out till the subsequent grant of international exchange grew to become readily available to the TCC to finance the importation of the other important device applications.
Frank Awuah called his company Crafton Engineering Companies Ltd. He experienced a system to set up the repair of Volkswagon Beetle air-cooled engines, and for this he expected a large centre lathe. His persistence was rewarded when the TCC allocated to him the biggest lathe in its importation programme: a Colchester Mascot with a long duration bed. He was also provided with a common milling machine and ancillary machines. Frank Awuah was then in a place to introduce some engine maintenance providers that experienced not formerly been out there in Suame Journal. These involved not only the planned alternative of Volkswagon crankcase principal bearing seatings but also the alternative of burned-out exhaust valve seatings and the manufacture of piston rings.
In the early 1980s, Ghana was incredibly limited of foreign trade and even intercontinental providers functioning in the nation uncovered it difficult to import the resources and spare areas they necessary to keep on in small business. The French enterprise, L’Air Liquide, operated liquid gas and acetylene plants in Kumasi and Tema but its production was threatened when its gas compressors required alternative piston rings. By providing the elements locally, Frank Awuah was capable to assist keep necessary compressed gas supplies by means of this crucial period of time. Like Stephen Okunor with his gearwheels, Frank Awuah, via the high-quality of his get the job done, was capable to pioneer a connection between grassroots engineering and intercontinental businesses.
When in 1987 Dr Francis Acquah, Secretary of Condition for Business, Science and Technology, proven the Free of charge Challenge to set up ITTUs in all of Ghana’s ten regions, he was nervous that the Board of Administrators should really include some representatives of the informal sector. Frank Awuah was chosen to represent the artisans of Suame Journal and Ashanti Area. His clever counsel assisted to hold the undertaking targeted on the requires of the grassroots clients served by the ITTUs in just about every location. He left the Free of charge Board only when its functionality was modified with the development of the long-lasting Gratis Foundation in the late 1990s.
In his workshop at the Suame ITTU, Frank Awuah was a neighbour of Stephen Okunor. The extent to which every skilled technician influenced the other may well never be regarded. Nevertheless, what is particular is that these two exemplars performed a major function in expanding the vehicle fix providers of Suame Journal at a time when this kind of self-reliance was desperately required.