Deputy Agric Minister charges GIMPA to set up School of Creative Arts

The Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) has been encouraged to take the lead in the establishment of a School of Creative Arts and Entrepreneurship, as well as a School of Agribusiness to serve as a stepping stone to shape the agriculture world.

The Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture, John Dumelo, made the call at the 25th Congregation of GIMPA in Accra yesterday.

He explained that having a university that placed special emphasis on the creative arts would further lend credence to the role the country's creative sector had played in its identity and economic growth.

"GIMPA has for a long time produced great minds in public administration, law, governance, technology and business, and now I believe it is the time to create a school for creative minds and then also for farmers," Mr Dumelo said. 

Ceremony

The graduates were from the School of Public Service, Governance, the School of Technology and Social Sciences and the GIMPA Law School.

The event, which was one of three graduation sessions for the day, was on the theme: "From Heritage to Creative Futures: Inspiring Development Through Artistic Education and Enterprise".

Possibilities

Mr Dumelo said the ceremony, which saw the presentation of degrees to undergraduate and postgraduate students, did not only mark the end of a chapter but the beginning of new and exciting possibilities.

The theme, he said, was a national call to action as it invited all to look back with pride and look forward with purpose.

"We are a nation deeply rooted in heritage — from the storytelling traditions of our forebears to the intricate partnership of our textiles, music and dance," he said.

The country, he said, had seen the creative arts as an afterthought; beautiful but not always recognised as economically essential.

As a proud GIMPA product, Mr Dumelo said he knew the power of the institute's education not only in shaping capable professionals, but also cultivating visionary thinkers.

He said the graduates, aside from inheriting the country's legacy, were also being commissioned to shape the future; a future where the creative economy was the pillar of national development.

"To our graduates, you are the bridge between what Ghana is and what Ghana can become — whether your future lies in public governance, law, technology or the creative economy, carry your GIMPA training with pride.

"Let your leadership reflect both thinking and empathy and national service," the deputy minister said. 

Transformative

The Rector of GIMPA, Professor Samuel Kwaku Bonsu, said the past academic year had been transformative for GIMPA in diverse ways.

He said the institute's student success depended on a significant part of the health and safety of its academic and support staff.

The digitisation vision of GIMPA, he said, continued with efforts to convert classrooms into virtual, ready environments where students at its satellite campuses and partner universities around the world could take classes "here with us, and vice versa".

"This has begun with the refitting of our classrooms with electronic and LED boards.

We hope to transform the entire GIMPA campus into a digital space that is always ready for the creative minds that we always have here," he said.