NAPO fast tracks laboratories for technical institutes project

Minister of Education, Dr Mathew Opoku Prempeh, has hit the ground running with the reactivation of a project that could see as many as 10,000 young Ghanaians equipped annually in various modern engineering disciplines.

The project involves the construction of buildings and the supply and installation of equipment on various campuses, in line with President Akufo-Addo's programme to prioritise technical education to offer the youth employable skills as part of his industrialization vision.

The new government, determined to get the best deal for Ghana, has reopened negotiations on the contract signed to take off under the late President John Evans Atta Mills. The project by Avic International Holding Company will be funded by $119.1 million credit facility by the Exim Bank of China at an annual interest rate of 2%, with the Ghana Government providing counterpart funding of $7.8 million.

But, the New Patriotic Party government has raised concerns about the cost of the project.

"President Akufo-Addo gave a manifesto promise to continue or revive projects that can be beneficial to the country, whether it was started by the NDC or stalled by them. But, in so doing, our aim is to make sure that any such project passes the value for money test," the Education Minister said.

As part of negotiations between Avic International, the Chinese multinational company, and the Government of Ghana, led by the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Education, already some estimated $16 million savings have been made on the $119 million project, plus the supply of spare parts being extended to cover 5 years, instead of 2. But, Government is still pushing for more, as they await a value for money audit commissioned by the Ministry of Finance.

The project for the rehabilitation and upgrading of equipment will set up five sets of laboratories across various institutions. These are;

• electrical and electronic laboratory
• mechanical engineering laboratory
• civil engineering laboratory
• automotive repair engineering laboratory and
• welding engineering laboratory

In line with this, the new Minister of Education paid a working visit Monday to Nairobi, Kenya, where a similar project has been successfully implemented through a Kenya-China facility.

The Technical University of Kenya boasts, arguably, the best equipped technical institute in Sub-Saharan Africa, with state of the art electrical engineering equipment and advanced mechanical engineering machine tools.

The Vice-Chancellor, Dr-Ing Francis W O Aduol, after the tour of the facilities, expressed great admiration for the quick action and positive attitude of the new Ghanaian government towards a project it inherited.

He also spoke about the need for technical universities in Africa to work together. "The truth be told, there is very little collaboration between African universities. We usually look east or west outside of our continent. I am really feel honored that you chose to come here and so early in your tenure. We want to build a long term relationship with your institutions in Ghana," he told the visiting Ghanaian minister.

The two men expressed keen interest in the need to create linkages between technical universities from the two countries.

In his remarks, Dr Opoku Prempeh, who was even yet to start work fully behind his desk at the Education Ministry, said he chose to travel early to Kenya because the Avic project which began in 2010 in Ghana to upgrade technical institutions but yet to take off calls for the new government to take an early but informed decision on.

The delayed project is to build a Ghana Vocational and Technical Test Centre, upgrade 5 polytechnics (mainly technical universities now) and 10 technical institutes, offering teacher training and staff training for some 145 Ghanaians.

Since it is in line with the new government's agenda to equip and improve such institutions in line with the manifesto pledge to create jobs and industrialise the Ghanaian economy, a decision must be made early. Already, the new government has managed to cut down the implementation period of the turnkey project by six months.

However, the new government has raised questions on the cost of the project and the Chinese company, "Avic has shown admirable enthusiasm to have this renegotiated to meet the new standards set by President Akufo-Addo. What I think is great about this new approach of reviewing potentially good projects with the view to get the best deal is that it takes away the fear of the contractor that the projects may be abandoned and it gets a better deal for the Ghanaian taxpayer, as well," Dr Opoku Prempeh said.

Regarding this particular Avic International project, "The focus really is to expand the scope of the project so that it covers more institutions, so that we can train more students and, by so doing, save the country some good money," the Education Minister added.