President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo yesterday inaugurated the biggest School of Nursing and Midwifery in West Africa, on the campuses of the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS) at Sokode-Lokoe in the Ho Municipality of the Volta Region.
The school which constituted the second phase of the establishment of UHAS was constructed with a $60million loan facility from the Chinese Government.
It has a central administration block, lecture theatres, recovery rooms, intensive care unit, a delivery ward and a holding bay among others and has the capacity to enrol more than 5000 students.
President Akufo-Addo as part of his commitment towards the development of UHAS and seeing it develop into a fully-fledged specialised institution in 2021 cut sod for the commencement of the construction of the project and took 36 months to complete.
In a related development the University has conferred an honorary Doctorate degree of Science on President Akufo-Addo for his interest in the development of the University.
The conferment which took place at a special congregation organised by the University Council coincided with the inauguration of the new facility.
A citation in honour of the President said his special interest in the development of UHAS was noticeable and visible for the whole world to see.
The Council Chair of the UHAS, Justice Jones Dotse (retired), said the honour done to the President was in appreciation of the role the president played in the China Phase II project.
He said the President cut the sod for the beginning of the project and work completed even before the end of his tenure.
He said the China Phase II project was the biggest in West Africa and would help increase students intake and satisfied the Universal Development Goal (UDG) four which aimed at providing access to quality education for all.
Justice Dotse said UHAS was grateful to the government of Ghana and China for the successful completion of the project, adding that the University was committed to producing world class graduates who would be able to meet world standard of quality health delivery across the globe.
The former Justice of the Supreme Court said through the introduction of the free SHS, students whose parents could not send them to school had been able to do so.
The Vice Chancellor of UHAS, Professor Lydia Aziator, on her part said the university had since 2016 graduated 8,915 individuals in all disciplines of healthcare provision and were performing creditably in providing healthcare to the people.
While expressing her profound gratitude to the President for seeing through the commencement and completion of the facility, she also appealed to him to help complete a laboratory project for the school.
She noted that when completed it would become the largest institutional laboratory in West Africa.
Prossesor Aziator announced that last year, the University received 13,000 applications but was able to admit only 10, 000 due to lack of infrastructure.
She said the University needed financial clearance for additional 450 lecturers because of the new programmes it would be introducing and more hostels to accommodate students.
The Vice Chancellor also appealed to the President to construct internal roads of the University, and provide vehicles particularly pick-up vehicles for UHAS to promote administrative work.
President Akufo-Addo thanked the University for the honour done him, stressing that “the honour is a testament of the achievement of his administration”.
He said he had received similar honours from both public and private universities in and outside the country for providing quality leadership in all sectors of the economy.
The President said education was the key to promote rapid development particularly science, adding that free SHS had removed financial problems parents faced in sending their wards to school.
He said 5.7 million youth had benefitted from free SHS and stressed that SHS was not only about increasing enrolment but also ensured quality education.
President Akufo-Addo said his government had built 126 science laboratories in SHSs across the country with the objective of producing scientists in the future.
BY SAMUEL AGBEWODE, SOKODE-LOKOE