SADA to partner Polytechnics to train students

The Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) is to partner with the Bolgatanga Polytechnic to train and equip students with the requisite skills and attitudes to meet the demands of industries.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of SADA, Mr Charles Abugre, who was the Guest of Honour at the Fifth Matriculation of the Bolgatanga Polytechnic, who announced this, said other Polytechnics in the SADA region would also benefit from the partnership.

The partnership, the CEO said, could also accelerate the transformational development of the Northern Ecological Zones, which was very critical to the nation’s development.

He said one of the possible areas SADA and the Polytechnics could start with, could be to commission a research of joint interests that would solve practical problems and present sustainable solutions for the development of agriculture and agro-business, manufacturing, housing, and tourism.

The CEO said Technical and Engineering vocations were pillars of development and SADA and the Polytechnics could explore the possibility of exchange programmes with students and lecturers in countries such as Germany, China, Israel and Brazil, which were more advanced in such programmes.

“We could also investigate the possibility of developing graduate entrepreneurship programmes for post- national service personnel to mentor and motivate them to set up their own SMEs,” he said.

“They should also explore financial options for instituting scholarship schemes for students and faculty members in critical areas, including Engineering, Urban Planning, Vocational and Technical Education among others.”

Mr Abugre said the SADA ecological zones were not poor as being perceived by some groups but they had problems with under-investments, which were being addressed by the Management.

The SADA Zones occupy 54.4 per cent of the total land space of Ghana with eight million hectares of land suitable for the cultivation of more than 20 cash crops.

It also abounded with untapped commercial quantities of energy, water, gold, limestone and quarry, iron ore and uranium.

SADA is a national programme, established in 2010, by Act 805 to fast-track the developmental gap between Northern and Southern Ghana.

Mr Abugre said despite the challenges SADA faced it should not be politicised.

He said it was too dangerous for half of Ghana to have speedy development whilst the other part stagnated.

He cited Nigeria, Kenya, Mali, Liberia and Sierra Leone as having unbalanced development, which pushed them into violence.