…Akufo-Addo Pledges As He Launches UG Endowment Fund
By Frank Amponsah
The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has urged the University of Ghana (UG) and all tertiary institutions in the country to find innovative and effective ways of linking up with industry and the corporate world, to engage in quality, strategic research, targeted at finding practical solutions to real life challenges of the society.
He has thus pledged that his government will support the University of Ghana and others to actualize research findings to the benefit of the country.
“My government fully supports and shares in your vision to become a research-intensive university, and we will do all in our power to help you actualize this,” he said.
The President said this when he launched the University of Ghana Endowment Fund, which is meant to provide additional funding and resources to enable the University improve upon the delivery on its mandate.
Delivering his address at the event, held at the Great Hall of the University of Ghana, President Akufo-Addo noted that the proceeds from the Fund would assist in the provision of additional facilities to enhance research and teaching.
He described the Fund as an excellent initiative, and indicated that endowment funds constituted the fulcrum around which most world-class universities in the world operate.
According to President Akufo-Addo, the NPP manifesto promised to establish a Research Fund in addition to the Book and Research Allowance to facilitate further research and innovation, and that that was currently receiving the active consideration at Cabinet level, and expressed the confidence that shortly, it would be established by Act of Parliament.
The launch of the Endowment Fund forms an integral part of the celebrations marking the 70th Anniversary of the founding of the University of Ghana, Legon.
Recounting the history surrounding the establishment of the University, President Akufo-Addo paid tribute to the inestimable work Dr. J.B. Danquah did to mobilise Ghanaians to insist on the building of this University.
“It was the inspired, visionary leadership of this great scholar and nationalist, who was described in his lifetime as the Doyen of Gold Coast politics, that enabled the Ghanaian people to reject the original decision of the colonial government that a single university be established in Ibadan, in Nigeria, for British West Africa, and get it to agree to the establishment of a separate university for our country,” the President said.
“Seventy years in the life of any institution is no mean feat! Indeed, from modest beginnings in 1948, the University College of Gold Coast, as it was known then, has evolved into one of Africa’s leading universities. Today, there is worldwide recognition for the excellence of the University’s faculty and students, and also for the professional successes chalked by her alumni both at home and abroad. The University continues to be a proud pacesetter, mentoring and nurturing several higher institutions and think tanks in the country,” he said.
He averred that, “How felicitous was that decision, and how greatly it has contributed to the growth of modern Ghana. It would be wholly appropriate and not at all farfetched to describe Joseph Boakye Danquah as the founder of this University, a fact, which, on the 70th anniversary of its existence, should be vividly recalled by all of us who are the beneficiaries of his work.”
President Akufo-Addo however stated that over the years, the University has lived up to its mission of developing world-class human resources and capabilities to meet the nation’s development needs, and global challenges, stressing that “Indeed, the University continues to be the centre of many scientific and technological innovations. The diversity of her research efforts and output in various disciplines including social sciences, law, natural sciences, medicine, agriculture, environment and energy, have been acclaimed internationally.”
