Let’s deepen collaboration : President urges Howard University

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has called for closer collaboration between the Howard University of USA and Ghana in the areas of education, health and tourism.

He said the school could have exchange programmes with its counterparts in Ghana and also team up with Ghana in the area of developing vaccines and other medicines in the country.

The President made the call when a delegation from the Howard University paid a courtesy call on him at the Jubilee House in Accra last Wednesday.

Delegation

The delegation, led by the President of the school, Dr Wayne A. I. Frederick, visited the Jubilee House through the initiative of the Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Dr Ibrahim Mohammed Awal, and the Chief Executive of the Ghana Tourism Authority, Akwasi Agyeman.Other members of the delegation were the Provost and Chief Academic Officer, Anthony K. Wutoh, and Tonija Hope Navas, who is in charge of Students Exchange.

Building capability

President Akufo-Addo noted, for instance, that the production of vaccines had become imperative because Ghana did not produce its own and had to ask other countries for help during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said as usual, those countries had to satisfy their domestic populations before dolling out some to countries such as Ghana.

He said it was to avoid the recurrence of such a situation that the country had taken a decision and commenced the process to develop the capability to manufacture its own medicine, not only for the COVID-19 but also other diseases.

The President said the National Vaccine Institute would soon be established by an Act of Parliament to be responsible for shepherding the process and noted that the Pan-African project would be a collaboration with Rwanda and Senegal at a Pan-African level.

He noted that the objective was for each of the countries to become self-sufficient in vaccine use and also give some to the African market.

Collaboration

President Akufo-Addo hailed the Howard University for the pivotal role it had played and continued to play in the development of the African-American and the African community worldwide, saying “this is a known fact and has made Howard famous”.

He also welcomed the promotion of academic and tourism collaboration between the university and some academic institutions in Ghana and called for the expedition of the process.

He expressed the hope that the school would have a relation with the Faculty of Law of the University of Ghana.

The President described the ‘Year of Return’, an event which had attracted much attention from Africans in the Diaspora, as “an important event which was used to reunite and rekindle Africans and their kith and kin on the other side of the Atlantic who are considered one people with a common origin”.

Exchange

Mr Agyeman informed the President that Howard University, with the support of Professor Wutoh, had been sending people to Ghana for various reasons, including educational exchange programmes, and had brought in over 10,000 since 1996.

He said that initiative was strengthened when a tourism delegation from Ghana, made up of himself and Dr Awal, visited the university and held discussions with the Provost, saying every year about 100 students from the school came to Ghana under the Young African Initiative.

The GTA Boss indicated that those students usually came to GIMPA and the University of Ghana for educational exchange programmes.

Mr Agyeman also announced that the two entities had commenced the process to establish a Ghana Village in Howard University as part of the Ghana Week programme and also promote the ‘December in Ghana’ project in the USA.

Creating opportunities

Prof. Wutoh, a Ghanaian resident in the USA, said he felt the need to create opportunities for student and faculty exchange and also work with the embassy to promote tourism in Ghana.

He said an increasing number of students of Howard had been coming to Ghana for study opportunities in the areas of Pharmacy, Medicine, Engineering, Communications and Divinity and was also expanding the university’s involvement in tourism and hospitality.