Works begins on Tamale Polytechnic hostel

Tamale, August 6, GNA- Mr Fasuaba Banahene, Administrator of the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund), on Tuesday cut the sod for work to begin on a 14 billion-cedis hostel for the Tamale Polytechnic. The 420-bed four-storey hostel, financed from the GETFUND, would solve accommodation problem facing the students.

Mr Banahene said 60 per cent of the GETFund would be put into infrastructure development of schools, especially in tertiary institutions.

He said the GETFUND has yielded 400 billion cedis this year and out of this, 98 billion cedis had been spent on the provision of infrastructure for basic schools, 32 billion cedis disbursed as students' loans, while 6,000 students in tertiary institutions had been granted scholarships. Mr Banahene called on Ghanaians to insist on getting Valued Added Tax (VAT) receipts for item purchased or service acquired to make the Fund sustainable.

He appealed to the community and the school authorities to cooperate with the contractor to enable him to deliver quality work.

Professor Mohammed Z. Ibrahima, Principal of the Polytechnic, said infrastructure development has always been the problem of the school and expressed his gratitude to the GETFund for supporting the school. He said the problem facing students living off campus with no social amenities such as water and electricity was retarding academic performance and expressed the hope that the provision of the hostel would address the problem.