President John Dramani Mahama has positioned technical universities as central to the country’s industrial transformation agenda.
He declared that the future competitiveness of the nation would depend heavily on how effectively technical education, applied research and industry collaboration are harnessed to drive innovation and enterprise.
Addressing participants at the 2026 Applied Research Conference of Technical Universities of Ghana (ARCTUG 2026) at Takoradi Technical University, President Mahama said governments across the world are increasingly relying on technical education, innovation and technology transfer to build competitive economies.
“Across the world, countries that are succeeding economically are those that have successfully connected education to industry, research to production and innovation to enterprise.”
The President described technical universities as “strategic national platforms” that must now occupy a central place in national development agenda.
“My presence here reflects the government’s deliberate recognition that applied research, technical education, innovation and technology transfer must now occupy a central place in Ghana’s national transformation agenda,” he told the gathering of academics, policymakers, researchers, industry players and students.
President Mahama said the country could no longer rely predominantly on theoretical academic pursuits at a time when economies are increasingly driven by practical, solution-oriented research and technological innovation.
“The future of Ghana will increasingly depend on institutions that can develop technologies, improve production systems, support industrial growth, stimulate entrepreneurship and equip young people with employable and adaptable skills.”
“And that is why technical universities matter profoundly in Ghana’s future.”
According to him, technical universities occupy a unique position within the country’s educational architecture because they stand “at the intersection of education and industry, of innovation and production and of research and enterprise.”
The President stressed that applied research must move beyond academic exercises conducted in isolation from industry and become directly linked to national economic priorities. “Applied research must become a central pillar of national economic policy,” he declared.
He said government now recognised technical universities “not as secondary institutions within higher education but as strategic drivers of industrial growth, technological advancement, productivity growth and the realization of our 24-hour economy policy.”
Reflecting on the conversion of polytechnics into technical universities a decade ago, President Mahama said the reform was intended to create institutions capable of driving Ghana’s industrial future through innovation, skills development and technology transfer.
“That decision to convert the polytechnics to technical universities was not merely an institutional reform. It was a strategic national intervention to advance skills development, strengthen applied research, deepen industry collaboration and produce a highly competent workforce capable of driving Ghana’s industrial future.”
As Ghana marks 10 years of the transition from polytechnics to technical universities, the President called for renewed focus on measurable national impact.
“Ten years is long enough for us to ask the difficult yet necessary questions. Have our technical universities truly become the engines of industrial transformation that we envisaged? Have they sufficiently shaped national productivity, technological advancement, manufacturing and enterprise development?”
President Mahama said the true measure of the success of technical universities would not be infrastructure expansion or institutional status, but their ability to help solve Ghana’s pressing economic challenges.
“The true test is whether our technical universities will actively help Ghana solve its present national problems.”
He identified youth unemployment, weak manufacturing capacity, low industrial productivity, import dependence and limited integration between academia and industry as challenges technical universities must help address.
“Technical universities must now position themselves at the centre of efforts to address these national challenges. They must become institutions that industry naturally turns to for solutions. Institutions where research responds directly to production needs.”
The President also urged industry to deepen collaboration with academia while encouraging technical universities to become more entrepreneurial and innovation-driven.
“Research must increasingly result in patents, in prototypes, in commercial products, technology transfer and scalable enterprises.”
Source:3news.com