<<Print>>

There is the need to expand capacity of public universities to train adequate engineers, the Provost of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) School of Engineering, Prof S. J. K. Ampadu, has said. He said that was necessary to help solve urgent management and engineering needs of the country, and added that "There is presently one engineer to a 100,000 population and this is woefully inadequate and the correlation is the reason why we have difficulty in the provision of clean water, management and other engineering-related services we require as a country". Speaking at the 11th graduation of the All Nations University College (ANUC) in Koforidua on Saturday, Prof. Ampadu, who is also the chairman of the Ghana Institution of Engineers, commended the ANUC for its commitment to introduce relevant technical and higher engineering programmes. "For a private university to have the courage to go into technical and engineering education, that institution needs to be highly commended and that is what the All Nations University College has done". In all,144 students, who pursued courses in Biomedical Engineering, Electronics and Communications Engineering, Computer Engineering, Business Administration, Entrepreneurship and Computer Science, graduated, with Mr Prince Brako being adjudged the Overall Best Student. The chairman of the Ghana Institution of Engineers stated that there were three major issues that were major threats to the country and the global community at large, and mentioned climate change, abject poverty and rapid urbanisation as those challenges. "Today climate change, abject poverty and rapid urbanisation are posing a serious danger to us all as a people", he stated. "Massive development taking place in our towns and cities are triggering the release of huge amounts of CO2 and other harmful gases into the atmosphere and the consequence is erratic rainfall patterns, flooding and rising sea levels, high tropical storms and hurricanes", he said. Prof. Ampadu added that a number of Ghanaians were wallowing in poverty-living on less then one $1.20 a day, though Ghana had made significant strides in poverty reduction from 51.7 per cent in 1991 to less than 28 per cent in 2006. "Currently, it is estimated that we have 15 per cent of Ghanaians who are classified as very poor which reflect that about six million people earn less than $1.20 and that is a challenge for us all", he pointed out. According to him, the effect of rapid urbanisation had been the spring up of slums all over and their attendant negative impact on development. "The solution to this problem depends on our ability to put up high rise buildings but how have we delivered in our infrastructure and housing up till now?", he asked. In a speech read on her behalf by her deputy, Mrs Mavis Frimpong, the Eastern Regional Minister, Ms Hellen Ntoso, stated that government was still grappling with issues of absorbing graduates from tertiary institutions into the public sector and that various interventions were in place to solve such problems. In his welcome address, the President of the ANUC, Dr Samuel H. Donkor, urged the graduates to apply the knowledge and skills they had acquired to make a difference in their lives and at their work places.