Okyenhene inaugurates Agric University Council

The Okyenhene, Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori Panin, in his capacity as the Chancellor, has inaugurated a 12-member council to steer the affairs of the University College of Agriculture and Environmental Studies at Bunso in the East Akim Municipality of the Eastern Region.

The council is expected to approve new programmes for the university and assist in the annual evaluation of deans.

The council is chaired by Professor Kwasi Kwafo Adarkwa.

Other council members are Prof Mrs Akosua Anyidoho, Dr H.A. Wehah, Osaberima Mirikisi Okarum Apon Atta I, Barima Adjei Twimin, Prof Richard Ankromah of KNUST, Eric De-Foresta, Representative of GOPDC, and Dr Peter Osam Sanyul, Representative of the Senior Staff.

The rest are Lawyer Kwame Boateng, the Okyeman Legal Counsel, Bernard Osei Gyamfi, SRC President, Barima Yentumi Boaman, Chief of Staff at the office of the Okyenhene, and Professor PK Kwakye, Rector of the university.

The Okyenhene, who is the President of the Eastern Regional House of Chiefs, in his address to the new council members and students at Bunso last Friday, noted that the university’s aim was to train high-level science and technology resource persons in a holistic manner and conduct innovative research in agriculture and the environment.

The Okyenhene noted that his outfit had campaigned for the conservation and protection of the environment and stressed the need to improve agricultural techniques in Ghana since agriculture is the economic backbone of the country.

The chancellor charged the council to adopt innovative ways of generating funds internally to expand the institution instead of relying on donations from outside.

According to him, the university will collaborate with the University of Wageningen in the Netherlands, where the Okyenhene conceived the idea of the university.

Okyenhene also hinted that the university would receive tutorial assistance from the University of Wales in the form of visiting lecturers and that this was due to his relationship with Prince Charles, the Chancellor of the University of Wales.

The university will be an asset to the community and the whole nation and will help in producing individuals who will possess a new paradigm in the conservation of the environment and developing new methods in the enhancement of agriculture.