According to the President, who is currently under serious flak from the public for nailing NDC as the political party responsible for the cocaine menace currently facing the country, it was the expectation of government that this university would enlarge access to distance education and create new avenues for employment generation and wealth creation.
The President contended that telecommunication was one of the fastest growing industries everywhere in the world, and government was establishing an open system fibre optic cable that was otherwise called information super highway, along the entire length of the country.
According to him, it was also to provide effective connectivity to render high quality service delivery and balanced socio-economic development throughout Ghana. He said the system would be available to telecom operators and other private service providers for transmission to all corners of the country at very affordable rates.
Additionally, Mr. Kufuor announced a concessionary facility of US$30 million granted by the government of China to support the first phase of the project, which was expected to start from the headquarters in Accra and end up in Tamale, and added that in the current spirit of modern technology and regional integration, plans were underway to ensure that GTUC was developed into a center for Education and Technology in Africa.
Underscoring further government's approval of US$40-million implementation of the e-Ghana project in conjunction with the World Bank, he urged the institution to be mindful that entrepreneurship development was central to the nation's GPRS-11.
"I urge the University to mainstream management and entrepreneurship development into its curriculum," the President said. "We expect IT proficient scholars in the country to avail themselves fully of this opportunity to be business-minded and entrepreneurial."
He explained that the impact of the university should be to propel all other institutions toward attaining the technological requirements critical to the 21st century.
According to him, there was also the e-government applications segment, which was aimed at improving inter-ministerial networking and coordination, efficiency, transparency and accountability in service-delivery to the community at large.
The chairman of the GTUC, who was the deputy Minister of Communications, Dr. Benjamin Aggrey Ntim, observed that there was one compelling, unrelenting challenge that every university must meet, and do so with its own unique resources.
"It is the challenge to transform lives through insight and understanding; to embolden individuals not just to discover but to enact knowledge; and to free them to claim the full measure of themselves as intellectually curious, morally responsible and compassionate human beings."
Dr. Ntim said the university intends to chart a different path in its academic pursuits as one that will mobilize the strengths of the faculty staff and transform the institution into an academically distinct entity, whilst intensely engaging in community activities.
According the GTUC chairman, the primary objective will always be to prepare a generation of leaders who are broadly educated, passionately engaged, and capable of translating core human values into action and reality, which he noted are the hallmark of a humane and civilized world.
"Clarifying and extending the paradigm of the university in new ways will enable the faculty to meet this obligation more effectively."
He said currently the institution had three hostel facilities and sixty-six guest rooms, which can serve up to 300 persons simultaneously. He said the university also had twenty-seven lecture rooms, comprising thirteen telecommunications laboratories, four computer laboratories and ten lecture halls.
According to the Minister, as a new university, they would work very hard to be the number one ranking university in the sub-region in the field of telecommunication engineering and information technology, saying, "We intend to increase student enrolment by 50% by the next academic year."
The chairman for the occasion, Prof. Mike Oquaye, Minister of Communications, said with the advent of ICT, all the revenue-generating toll booths would operate computerized systems.
He also noted that government was doing all it could to extent communications to the rural communities.
Autor(en)/Author(s): Bismark Bebli
Quelle/Source: AllAfrica, 16.08.2006
