ACBF signs new grants and negotiation with four African institutions

The University of Ghana (UG) on Thursday hosted a new grants negotiation and signing ceremony by the African Capacity building Foundation (ACBF) with four African institutions to help produce competent manpower to handle African Economies.

The grants, totaling $9.6 million, constituted additional funding for the ACBF Economic Policy Management Programme (EPMP), a Master’s programme, which aims at addressing the problems of inadequate well-trained middle-level managers in key economic ministries in Africa.

Dr Frannie Leautier, Executive Secretary of ACBF, in an address said the ACBF has been supporting the programme for the past two decades to ensure new training programmes to produce competent manpower capable of having significant impact on the management of economies in Africa.

She explained that the amount would be distributed among the beneficiary universities listed as University of Cocody in Abidjan (EPM-Abidjan) and the University of Yaoundé II (EPM-Yaoundé).

The rest are the Centre Africain d’Etudes Superieures en Gestion, (CESAG) a French Institute of Post-Graduate Management Studies, and the Centre for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA).

She said out of the amount, a grant of $1,575,000 would be given for CESAG III to improve financial management and accountability of African countries in the areas of corporate banking, risk management and capital markets.

“Furthermore a grant…of two million dollars would also be given for CODESRIA II, for the improvement of the quality of research and the volume of research outputs of African scholars, while a grant of $2.940 million of the amount would be given to EPM-Yaoundé”.

Dr Leautier, said the EPM-Abidjan would also receive a grant of $3.045 million for the implementation of the phase IV, to improve the performance and efficiency of the public sector in Francophone West and Central African countries through the enhancement of skills of policy analysts and economic managers among other things.

She expressed her gratitude to the UG for accepting to host the ceremony and most importantly to the Government of Ghana for its permanent commitment to capacity building in Africa.

She cited the recent Bank of Ghana contribution to the UG Business School as a significant realisation of the importance of capacity building in the area of economic management.

Professor John Gyapong, Pro-Vice Chancellor in Charge of Research and Innovation Department, UG, said the University is pleased to be associated with the programme.**