Take advantage of knowledge resources to achieve dreams "UMB CEO charges graduates"
THE Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Universal Merchant Bank, Nana Dwemoh Benneh, has charged university graduates to be curious and adventurous and make use of the information and knowledge resources readily available in order to achieve their dreams in life.
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According to him, graduates had acquired the skills to realise their dreams through their hard work in completing their studies and so "Now let it stand you in good stead as you create the professional world you desire".
Nana Benneh said this at the March 2023 Congregation of the University of Ghana in Accra last Thursday.
The event was for students of the College of Education undergraduate programmes. It formed part of a week-long congregation to graduate 11,711 students from all four of the university’s colleges, namely: College of Humanities, College of Basic and Applied Sciences, College of Health Sciences and College of Education as well as the School of Graduate Studies.
They were made up of 8,331 students graduating with Bachelors degrees, 462 with diplomas and 2,918 graduate students comprising 102 Doctor of Philosophy (PhDs) and 2,816 Masters students.
Entrepreneurship
Nana Benneh told the graduands that the opportunities their world presented to them were enviable, adding that "For most of us when we were graduating in 1996, our ambition was to find a good paying job in a good company or alternatively to pursue further studies aligned to the degree we obtained"
"You, however, are entering into the age of the entrepreneur driven by business models, based not only on the knowledge you have gained at the university but complemented by skills based on technology.”
"Variables such as artificial intelligence, robotics, programming and software development are now key and can all be acquired online from wherever you are," he said.
Nana Benneh said the world had gone digital and gradually the barriers of entry to acquiring the required skills and setting up businesses had been lowered so significantly that there now existed an almost level playing field to any of their ambitions regardless of their academic or technical background.
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The UMB CEO said the friendships and relationships they had made and would make as they progressed in life would play a key role in how successful they would become in their endeavours.
In an address read on her behalf, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Prof. Nana Aba Amfo, said to improve upon the experience of students while at the university, a number of initiatives had been put in place including the classroom modernisation project, hot -spot comfort zones and one student one laptop among others.
She said the university had initiated a classrooms modernisation project to modernise the teaching and learning facilities at the university as well as expand access.
The project, she said, was expected to be completed in phases through internally generated funds and with the support of corporate institutions and individuals.
The first phase of the classroom, she said, would be awarded on contract and the scope of work was estimated to cost a total of GH¢ 5.5 million hike as the second phase of the classroom modernisation project would cover a cost between $ 65,000 and $ 170,000.
The Chancellor of the University, Mrs Mary Chinery-Hesse, called on the graduands to strive hard and be worthy ambassadors of the university and the country at large.
She urged them to continue to use the skills and knowledge they had gained to make a positive impact in their communities.
The Valedictorian, Hannah Ayamba, thanked the university authorities for creating an enabling environment for academic activities.
