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Prof. Kwesi Yankah addressing the gathering
Prof. Kwesi Yankah addressing the gathering

Increase budgetary allocation for research - Prof. Yankah

The Vice Chancellor of the Central University, Prof. Kwesi Yankah, has called for an increase in the budgetary allocation for research in order to deliver quality and reliable statistics and data for the country.

He said currently only three per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) was allocated for national research, noting that it was far below the benchmark prescribed by the African Union (AU) for all African countries.

Addressing the third congregation ceremony of the Kings University College (KUC) in Accra, Prof. Yankah indicated that the lack of accurate and concise data had led to bloated figures and statistics, with certain groups and individuals taking advantage to satisfy their parochial interests.

Wrong data

In his view, if the situation was not addressed immediately by the government by way of increasing the budgetary allocation, it would always lead to the churning out of wrong data for the Ghanaian populace.

“The statistics concerning the unemployment rate and other critical issues in Ghana is not even known but concealed.

“Ask yourself how we arrived at statistics for the voting population of 15 million out of a total population of 27 million as a country,” he noted.

In his address, the President of the KUC, Dr Felix Kwame Semavor, congratulated the graduands on their hard work throughout their studies.

He also called on them to be good ambassadors of the school, saying there was the need to contribute their quota to nation building “and let your lights so shine wherever you go.”

Dr Semavor added that the African continent was facing a lot of challenges due to the complexity of health problems, fast development of medical technology, newer treatment modalities and ever-changing medical strategies and management.

That, he said, called for a change in the mode of education delivery in the area of health to meet the challenges of the health profession and patients.

“Health education needs to focus on transforming students from the theory-based approach to effective practitioners after graduation,” he emphasised.

Introduction of courses

It was for the above reasons that Dr Semavor stated that KUC had put measures in place to introduce courses which would address such needs of  society.

In all, 483 students graduated with Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Master of Business Administration (MBA) degrees for the 2015 and 2016 batches.

Out of that, nine students each from the 2015 and 2016 batches graduated with first class, while a total of 104 from both batches graduated with second class upper division.

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