Students from the Department of Optometry at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), have paid a working visit to the leading producers of digital free-form lenses companies in Africa, Gokals AniLimited.
The visit forms part of the Department’s annual facility tour to leading companies who produce first-hand products and exposed the students to the processes and procedures in producing lenses and other forms of eye wear products.
This year, at least 108 Level 500 students from KNUST embark on the trip to Gokals AniLImited and Gokals Healthy Optionz to familiarized themselves on how lenses are made and also trained on the best technologies emerging at the market.
Speaking to the media after the training, the Chief Executive Officer of Gokals AniLimited, Mr. Ashish Gokadals said in the field of Optometry, doctors are the key in given the right prescription and the right information to manufacture the correct medical device which is the lens for the patient.
“If we don’t get the right information from the doctors, we cannot produce the right lens neither can we market the new technologies that we have to make the patient life easy,” he stated.
Mr. Ashish said what is interesting about the current state of eye wear and lens industry whether optometrist or optician or ophthalmologist is the fact that, behaviors are changing especially how “we look at our phone, angle at which we look at our phone, all of these change the rapid movement of the eye.”
He stated, “So suddenly, you see the older generation their eye movement was not so rapid, it brings about questioning of how did the rapid eye movement take care of the dry eye, if your eyes are getting dry or causing a disease pattern in the healthcare, it is important for us to take account of that behaviour change to make sure that we impact that information in make sure that we make a better quality product to prevent that disease.”
Benefits of the visit
The CEO said Gokals see the guesture as a community building project saying, they are students who are going to graduate in one or two years and to be in charge of our eyes so, the first and most important thing is to share information.
“Gokals is getting to know the caliber and quality of doctors that are coming in and also building a potential customer list to be very honest but on the flip said, they are also getting to interact one on one and because we have two different companies here, Gokals Healthy Optionz Limited and the Gokals AniLimited, the students get to see the manufacturing process as well the retail potion”,
Mr. A shish in an answer to a student question on why their frames are more expensive than other competitors said, “I don’t know what others do I cannot comment on that but my quality assurance is something I keep focusing on and pushing.”
A student he indicated, asked him why they have a demo frame with a butterfly on it which cannot be sold but, attracts customers and they keep moving it around the shop because they want customers to see the products around it.
“At the end of the day, these optometrist students will own their own showrooms or work for a chain of companies so it is important to share informations so we can compete healthily and do better for the nation.”
He emphasized that Gokals still has a work to do saying, their aim is to be the best innovator in lenses and give the best “I don’t want to have 100 shops but want a few good shops that can give great quality service to our patients.”
He also hinted that Gokals Healthy Optionz cooperate social responsibility has to do with offering free eye screening and texting to patients added that, for close to 100 years Ghanaians have supported the brand.
He challenged the students to be good ambassador of quality and good lenses to help lessen the burden of society and also, charged them to enter into the marketing option of the eye wear industry because, they know best what the patients wants.
A Senior manager at Gokals AniLimited, Mr. Samuel Yeboah took the students around the facility and the retail session to explain the process and procedures through which lenses are produced
Some of the students could not hid their joy for observing first hand information on how lenses are produced and thanked management for offering them one-time experience.
