Ghana president: technical education key to country’s future

Technical higher education will be one of the driving forces in Ghana’s industrial revolution, according to the nation’s president.

In a recent speech to students at Ho Technical University, Nana Akufo-Addo told them the country’s goals will be achieved through the work that goes on in institutions such as theirs.

“If the ambitions we have for this country are going to come into fruition, a great deal of it depends on what is going to happen in places like this,” he said. “You are going to be at the centre of the industrial revolution of our country.”

Mr Akufo-Addo, who was speaking as part of a two-day working visit to Ghana’s Volta Region, said that his government was prioritising education – particularly technical provision – to improve the economy, the government of Ghana’s website reported.

Ghana would continue to be poor if it maintained its position as a nation reliant on the production of raw materials, he warned.

At the same event, GhanaWeb reported him as saying that countries formerly similar to Ghana were now “places of prosperity and development” as a result of committing “a lot of resources” to developing their education systems, with “technical and scientific” provision at the forefront.

“[Technical education] is the key to our future,” Mr Akufo-Addo said. “Whatever we can do to support your development, to make it relatively easy for you to study hard and to get the information to be able to contribute to the progress and development of the country, the Akufo-Addo administration is going to do exactly that.”

john.elmes@timeshighereducation.com