Dr. Kwame Antwi Oduro, a Research Scientist has been appointed as the new Director of the CSIR -Forestry Research Institute of Ghana.
He takes over from Professor Daniel A. Ofori who served for about nine years at the institute.
Dr. Kwame Antwi Oduro in his acceptance speech, at the investiture at Fumesua, near Kumasi, on Wednesday 17th April, 2024 expressed his profound gratitude and appreciation to the governing board, management and staff of the Institution.
He assured his commitment to serve and offer leadership to the Management and Staff of the institute having accepted the appointment as the Director of CSIR-FORIG with all the responsibilities that come with it.
He indicated that the past Directors of CSIR-FORIG and their management have implemented various policies, initiatives, programmes and projects assured he would consolidate those gains and build upon them to ensure continuity, progress and the upliftment of the image of the institute.
He stressed that, their research activities in forestry, biodiversity, climate change, environment and policy have been the backbone of Ghana’s forestry sector and that notwithstanding their achievements CSIR-FORIG faces some challenges including inadequate transfer of technologies to end-users, ageing infrastructural facilities, inadequate funding for research and development, high staff attrition, and staff welfare issues.
Dr. Antwi Oduro disclosed that his vision, as the Director, is to aggressively pursue a four-point agenda linked to the CSIR-FORIG strategic plan.
He reiterated that, they will improve research and development delivery and transfer of technologies for the benefit of society, aggressively pursue strategies to mobilize financial resources to undertake research and also pursue strategies to enhance visibility of their research outputs and products and to make CSIR-FORIG a household name, while developing strategies to improve staff welfare and performance.
He expressed the view that each and every single staff member is indispensable to the attainment of their goals, and therefore, will rely heavily on the commitment of each staff in pursuing the vision.
The new Director entreated all to put in their best to work wholeheartedly and diligently in order to transform CSIR-FORIG and build on previous efforts to realise an organisation that performs at its highest possible potential to deliver R&D products tailored to the benefit of the nation and that satisfies the welfare needs of staff.