Catholic University for Ghana

(By Mawuli Sogbey- GRi)

The Catholic church of Ghana is to establish a catholic University at Fiapre in the Brong Ahafo Region by 2002. The President of the Ghana Catholic Bishops' Conference, Most Rev. Peter Appiah Turkson has said in Accra. The search is on for a Rector to be appointed by 31st December, 1999 to help coordinate affairs for the establishment of the University.

Already, an acting Registrar has been designated and an office has been established at the National Catholic Secretariat, to deal with matters connected with the University.

Arch-Bishop Turkson said a sub-committee has been set up to mobilise initial capital of 10 billion cedis to provide essential facilities for the university to takeoff as scheduled.

He said apart from ensuring that the catholic church provides education at levels of national life, the university is aimed at supplementing government's at providing high calibre of manpower to take charge of the developmental needs of the country.

Arch-Bishop said the University will be open to all persons in society irrespective of their religious or ethnic background, adding that the recent impasse over the land acquired for the project has been resolved. He described the incident which saw the youth of Fiapre rising against their chief for allegedly pocketing 10 million cedis from the sale of the land for the project as due to mis-information and mis-undertanding.

The matter has been resolved following the intervention of Mr David Osei-Wusu, outgoing regional Minister of Brong Ahafo. In support of the Catholic church's intention, Honourable Dr. Mahammed Ibn Chambas, deputy Minister of Education, said government's policy is to encourage the establishment of private tertiary institutioin and in that regard the catholic church's initiative is most welcome and commendable.