President Mahama unveils GH¢10m support for technical universities
President John Dramani Mahama has announced a ¢10 million seed allocation for each technical university in the country.
This is part of efforts to strengthen technical-vocational education and training (TVET) and drive industrial transformation.
President Mahama said this at the Fourth Applied Research Conference of Technical Universities of Ghana held at the Takoradi Technical University in the Western Region last Tuesday.
He described the conference as a national development forum where academia, industry, government, innovators, and entrepreneurs collectively explore how research could be transformed into practical solutions, competitive industries, sustainable jobs, and shared national prosperity.
Country’s future
The gathering, he said, held profound significance for the country’s future, especially as the country reflected on 10 years since the conversion of polytechnics into technical universities.
He recalled that the decision taken a decade ago was bold and faced strong opposition at the time, but said the transformation had proven worthwhile.
The President commended all stakeholders who played key roles in the process and acknowledged that despite the progress made, significant challenges remained, particularly in infrastructure development and improving learning outcomes across the technical universities.
As a collective effort to address the challenges, President Mahama disclosed that the government, in consultation with the Minister of Education, had decided to allocate ¢10 million in seed funding to each technical university in next year’s budget to support their development priorities.
The conversion of polytechnics into technical universities, he said, was not merely a change in institutional status but a strategic national intervention aimed at advancing skills development, strengthening applied research, deepening industry collaboration, and producing a competent workforce capable of driving Ghana’s industrial future.
Reflection
Reflecting on the 10-year journey, President Mahama said the anniversary should not only be a moment of celebration but also one of honest national reflection.
President Mahama said the original vision of the reforms was never simply about changing names or elevating institutional status, but about creating institutions capable of driving the country’s industrial future through applied research, innovation, technology transfer, and skills development.
He said the real measure of success would not be based on infrastructure, ceremonies, conferences, or rankings, but on whether technical universities actively helped to solve Ghana’s pressing national problems.
President Mahama used the opportunity to commend students and researchers after touring exhibitions at the conference, saying the innovative projects displayed showed that the institutions were on the right path.
He, therefore, urged technical universities to position themselves at the centre of national development efforts by becoming institutions that provide practical solutions to the country’s economic and industrial challenges.
Conversions
The Chairman of the Applied Research of Technical Universities of Ghana (ARCTUG) and Vice-Chancellor of Sunyani Technical University, Prof. Kwadwo Adinkra Appiah, acknowledged the vision behind the conversion of polytechnics into technical universities but noted that the transition came with significant structural and financial challenges.
He said the fact remained that many of the former polytechnics attained university status without the corresponding seed funding and infrastructure investments required to support full institutional transformation.
The Vice-Chancellor of Takoradi Technical University, Prof. John Frank Eshun, said the conference coincided with the 10th anniversary of the landmark conversion of Ghanaian polytechnics into technical universities a milestone officially commissioned at the TTU a decade ago by Mr Mahama during his presidency.
