KNUST raises funds for research, scholarship

The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) is raising GH¢2 million as seed money into an educational fund to promote research and support students’ scholarship.

Dubbed: ‘KNUST Foundation,’ the seed money was raised at two separate fund-raising events organised in Accra and Kumasi respectively at a targeted mark of GH¢1 million each.

The drive to raise the fund was spearheaded by the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, who is also the Chancellor of the university.

In a message sent through his Anantahene, Baffour Agyei Fosu Twitwiakwa II, at the university’s Dinner Dance in Kumasi last Friday, the Asantehene reiterated the need for KNUST to restrategise to tap into non-traditional areas of raising funds to be able to live up to its mandate of promoting science and technology education in the country.

Partnering the private sector

He indicated that with the right personalities at the helm of the country’s universities, it should be possible for them to partner the private sector to make up for the difference.

The outgoing Vice Chancellor of KNUST, Prof. William Otoo-Ellis, announced that a fund management team outside the university had been put in place to see to the investment and distribution of the fund.

He said a platform had been created on the university’s website to afford people the opportunity to make continuous contribution towards the growth of  the fund.

Prof. Otoo-Ellis noted that lack of financial resources was the biggest threat to the university’s activities because it affected the recruitment and retention of staff.