Give private institutions tax waiver - Former VC, UMaT to govt
A former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT), Prof. J S Y Kuma, has appealed to the government to give private tertiary educational institutions a tax waiver and incentives on educational facilities to ease the financial burden on them.
Advertisement
He said since the request for the government’s support through the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) was not feasible and even state tertiary institutions were not receiving full support from the fund, that alternative should be explored.
“The government is unable to provide full financial support to state institutions, it would therefore be difficult to give any meaningful financial support to private tertiary institutions”, Prof. said.
Speaking at the 47th graduation ceremony of the Christian Service University College (CSUC) in Kumasi, Prof. Kuma said incentives such as tax exemption and concessions, when taxing educational items for the private sector education, were more appropriate and a financial relief on the over 158 private tertiary institutions operating in the country.
Contribution of faith-based institutions
He applauded the significant and crucial role the Christian tertiary institutions were playing in the delivery of quality tertiary education in the private sector.
He said, “Nine out 10 private institutions so far chartered, are Christian-based institutions, very impressive and shows their important role in the private education space”.
He, therefore, appealed to educational stakeholders to continuously guard, maintain and manage the various Christian tertiary institutions to serve the needs of Ghanaians who would opt for an educational system embedded in Christian values for their children.
President, CSUS
In his report, the President of CSUC, Prof. Samuel K Afrane, said plans were far advanced for the college to receive its charter to become a fully-fledged university.
He said the CSUC would soon introduce new demand-driven and relevant academic programmes such as MSC Digital Marking, MSc Investment and Financial Risk Management, MA Events Management, BSc Cybersecurity and the first doctoral programme in ministry.
Infrastructural development
Prof. Afrane said CSUC had embarked on several infrastructural projects including the development of a local water supply system for campus consumption, the construction of an entire floor for the Nursing and Midwifery Department and the upgrading and development of new infrastructure in response to the growing demands.
Others were the completion of five new offices, facelifts of the staff common room and the library and the provision of 300 new chairs for the lecture hall.
Statistics
A total of 438 graduated from the CSUC.
They were made up of 180 postgraduates and 258 undergraduates from the Faculties of Humanities and the School of Business, Health and Allied Sciences.
