India to give Ghana more scholarship slots

Any country in the West African sub-region that fails to utilize all its scholarship slots to study in India would forfeit those scholarships to Ghana, Mr Rajinder Bhagat, Indian High Commissioner to Ghana has announced.

Mr Bhagat made the announcement at the weekend when he addressed a forum on the Indian Technical and Economic Corporation (ITEC) Day in Accra as part of activities to mark International Students’ Day.

He said Ghana had been one of the active participating countries under the ITEC scheme and had therefore increased ITEC slots for Ghana from 110 to 125 for the year 2011- 2012.

“Due to the active participation of Ghana in ITEC programmes, the High Commission is considering giving slots of other countries in the sub-region such as Togo, Burkina-Faso and Ivory Coast who will fail to utilize all their scholarships to Ghana”, he emphasized.

The ITEC programmes range from short-term courses of a couple weeks duration to diplomas and Masters Degrees of one to two years duration, which cover diverse fields such as agriculture, entrepreneurship development, tool design, small business creation, energy, promotion of rural industries, Information Technology, banking, food processing, audit and accounting among others.

Mr Bhagat said India was also considering a proposal to establish India-Africa Institute of Information Technology, Regional Material Testing Laboratory for Highways and the Construction of Training Academy under International Civil Aviation Negotiation (ICAN) in Ghana under the India-Africa Forum Summit (IAFS) to further strengthen the bilateral relations between the two countries.

He said a fertilizer joint venture at the cost of 1.3 billion US dollars was also at the discussion stage and stressed that bilateral relations between the two countries would be boosted if ITEC alumni came together to discuss issues of common interest.

Mr Lee Ocran, Minister of Education lauded India for its tremendous support to Ghana and gave the assurance that the Ghana Government would continue to open its doors for its development partners to help in addressing the needs of the people.

He appealed to the Indian government to help Ghana improve its education sector in the use of ICT and expressed the hope that those who had the chance to train in India would use their experience to impart knowledge to others in the country.**