FORIG takes steps to generate more revenue

The Forestry Research Institute of Ghana (FORIG) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), has signalled a shift towards the commercialization of its products and services.

Dr. Daniel Ofori, the Director, said beginning next year January, it would establish a commercialization and resource mobilization division, to generate more revenue to sustain its operations.

This has become necessary amid continued decline in budgetary allocation, something that was badly affecting its research activities and output.

He was addressing the annual planning session of FORIG at Fumesua in the Ejisu-Juaben Municipality – to evaluate its performance and discuss the way forward to promote good forestry management practices, sustenance of biodiversity and deepen linkages with other research institutions.

Dr. Ofori noted that the Institute had enormous potentials to become a “centre of excellence in forestry research in the humid zone,” given adequate funding combined with appropriate incentives.

He expressed discomfort with what he said, was the gap between industry and the research institutions, and said strenuous efforts must be made to overcome that.

In line with this it had planned to strengthen its engagement with the private sector to facilitate technology transfer.

“We are working seriously to tackling this issue and intend to do more on technology transfer in order to make meaningful our research work to the nation”, he added.

Dr. Mrs. Rose Entsua-Mensah, Deputy Director-General of the CSIR, spoke of the need for researchers to build business skills to effectively market their findings.

She said the Institute could work on this with the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA).