GHANA PRESIDENT CUT SOD FOR CONSTRUCTION OF UEAS

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo cut the sod for the commencement of construction for the University of Engineering and Agricultural Sciences (UEAS) in Bunso in the Eastern Region. It is expected to be completed in 24 months.

President Akufo-Addo in this year’s Message on the State of the Nation to Parliament on 30th March 2022, announced the government’s plans to turn the Bunso campus of the University of Environment and Sustainable Development into an independent University dedicated to the study of Engineering.

He said the establishment of the University was part of the government’s response to the current national preoccupation with food security–that is, providing leadership in teaching, research, and public outreach across several fields, as well as enhancing the future competitiveness of Ghana’s industries.

President Akufo-Addo acknowledged that energy, industry, agriculture, medicine and health, clean air and water, transportation, sanitation, and the use, management, and conservation of natural resources, we’re driven by science and technology.

He said it was obvious that for Ghana to be part of the modern world, the country needed to deploy science and technology at all levels of its development process.

That, President Akufo-Addo explained, meant that the country’s development depended on its ability to understand, adapt, produce and commercialize scientific and technological knowledge in ways appropriate to its culture, aspirations, and level of development.

The would help shape the fulfillment of the national dream, “which is to meet basic challenges of survival, such as providing food, shelter, clothing, health, and security for the people, and creating the wealth that will guarantee the prosperity of present and future generations.”

The President said over the last five years, the government had implemented educational initiatives and programs based on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM).

That goal, the President said, was to ensure a target of a 60:40 science-humanities ratio, as well as educate a critical mass of the Ghanaian population for science-related jobs that defined their future employability.

“I am, thus, happy to note that this year’s enrolment of TVET students in Senior High Schools has reached record levels – 44,000 students, representing a 100percent increase over the 2021 enrolment figure.”

The country’s Gross Tertiary Enrolment Ratio, which measured enrolment in tertiary education, regardless of age, expressed as a percentage of the population, which stood at 18.8% as of 2021, had increased to 20% this year.

President Akufo-Addo thanked the Export-Import Bank of Korea and the Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF) of the Republic of Korea for providing US$90 million for the construction of the University’s project.