National Accreditation Board to get more powers
The Ministry of Education has set up a committee to review the Act that established the National Accreditation Board (NAB), in order to give it more powers to crack the whip on unauthorised tertiary institutions in the country.
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The Deputy Minister of Education in charge of tertiary education, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, said a new act, which would come into effect by 2015, would transform the NAB into an authority and give it much control and influence which the old one, Act 744, could not do.
“There is too much influx of unaccredited tertiary institutions in the country, and we need to protect the sanctity of the operations of our institutions,” he said at the 5th congregation and graduation ceremony of the Chartered Institute of Bankers (CIB) Ghana in Accra last Saturday.
Number of graduating students
In all, 207 students graduated from various levels — 97 graduated with certificate in Banking Operations, 78, 26, and six with professional level certificates in the old, new and intermediate programmes in banking respectively.
Mr Ablakwa said the committee had done enough work and would soon submit its report to the ministry to be forwarded to the Attorney- General’s Department and later to Cabinet and Parliament for passage.
Prosecuting powers
Act 744, he said, did not grant the board independent prosecuting powers to enable it to seek legal action against persons or institutions that offered unaccredited diploma or degree programmes.
When NAB is made an authority, Mr Ablakwa added, there would be no more need to contact the Ministry of Education whenever it wanted to close down unauthorised institutions as the case was currently.
He cautioned the public to be vigilant and to always verify the status of tertiary institutions before enrolling for their services, adding that it would save the unsuspecting public from a lot of worries and inconveniences.
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Meanwhile, the NAB, on its website, had published 48 unaccredited tertiary institutions at the time of filing this story, with an assurance that “the board will continue to add to the list as and when any comes to its notice.”
Presidential charter
The President of the CIB Ghana, Mr Clifford Duke Mettle, said the institute had come of age and needed to be granted a presidential charter to operate as a fully fledged university.
According to him, the institute had provided academic excellence in banking and finance to a lot of bankers for the benefit of the nation.
The presidential charter, he said, would enable the institute to broaden its scope and horizon in the areas of banking and finance and offer more assistance as far as the banking industry was concerned.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the CIB Ghana, Mr Anthony Yaw Oppong, challenged the graduands to embrace the challenges in the world and create opportunities where there was none.
He encouraged them to add passion and zeal to whatever they did, saying they were the best ways to find fulfilment in life.