GIMPA: About C300bn needed to achieve excellence

Accra, Nov. 18, GNA 96 The Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration needs about 300 billion cedis to create an excellent best educational hub for the training of society's leaders in politics, public management and business, Professor Stephen Adei, Rector of the Institute said on Saturday.

He said the 300 billion cedi project would have facilities, which include a world class faculty, cutting edge technology, good technical and management systems, topmost rated programmes and state of the art infrastructure.

Prof Adei was speaking at the third congregation and first undergraduate graduation for the Greenhill College where about 200 students graduated in various Masters' and Bachelors Degree programmes.

The Rector observed that if GETfund could assure the institute of a modest inflow of just 10 billion cedis a year as a public sector tertiary institution over the next ten years, then GIMPA could commit 300 billion cedis of financing the project with the internally generated resources.

He explained that the 300-billion- cedi- project would come in three parts and noted that 100 billion cedis would be used to upgrade GIMPA into the finest public service school, graduate training institution and best hospitality training centre in Africa.

The second part, he said, would be the building of a separate top rated undergraduate school at a cost of 150 billion cedis to house Greenhill College, while the third component would be used for the 50 billion cedis distance learning infrastructure, which would link all the regional capitals with internet and video conferencing facilities.

=93We want to create Ghana's own version of Harvard Business School, Kennedy School of Government and Malaysia's INTAN; a public service school, all rolled into one; plus the best undergraduate school in Africa for public administration, business, hospitality management and Information, Communication and Technology (ICT),=94 Prof. Adei said. He said: 93We want GIMPA to be second to none. We cannot and we must not take for granted or leave to chance the selection of those who will lead Ghana's business houses, bureaucracy and politics ten to twenty years down the road.=94

He announced that the Divestiture Implementation Committee had allocated offices in Tamale, Kumasi and Takoradi to the Institute which it intended to create distance learning centres to the regions at a cost of 11.15 billion cedis and called for help to enable the institute link all regional capitals with a video conferencing facility which would serve as an intranet for government.

On challenges, Prof. Adei mentioned that GIMPA had been treated by some institutions such as the scholarship secretariat and the National Commission for Tertiary Education as a private institute, giving them less support than expected.

He however, commended GETfund for helping the institute with a syndicate room, saying, 93The pursuit of excellence should not be penalized in Ghana.=94

Prof. Adei suggested universal education to secondary school level to uplift the general capacity of citizenry, high level of training with emphasis on science and technology and visionary, capable and legitimate leaders as a remedy by for the nation to achieve greatness.

=93With little ingenuity, Ghanaians in the Diaspora can bring billions of dollars a year into the country, more than we could hope from donors for years; we earn billions from tourism, education=85the major constraint on our development is not foreign exchange but vision, innovation and human resource development. If we focus on our human resource we will be touching on the corner stone of how nations develop,=94 he held.

He challenged the graduands to think big, work hard and make a difference for God, country and family and said, 93Someone has said that if you think knowledge is expensive, try ignorance.=94 Dr Emmanuel Boohene, Chairman of GIMPA Council, noted that GIMPA was challenged with the need for more facilities like classrooms, faculty rooms, laboratories, extended libraries, among other constraints and urged well wishers to support GIMPA's projects.

Among the graduands were Madam Hawa Yakubu, former Minister of Tourism and Bishop James Saah of Action Chapel. 18 Nov. 06