By Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, Ghanadot
Accra, July 26, Ghanadot -
The President of Ghana, Professor John Evans Atta
Mills has pledged GH¢100 million from the Minerals
Development Fund, to boost the infrastructure
development of the Tarkwa-based University of Mines
and Technology (UMaT) for the next five years.
President Mills made the pledge in a speech read on
his behalf by Mr Alex Tettey Enyo, Minister of
Education, at the first congregation of the
university said the money was not part of the annual
GETFund allocations.
President Mills called on the Vice Chancellor to
present the yearly activities and budget of the
university for the next four years to his office
before the end of the year.
He reiterated his administration was committed to
ensure that the university got all the needed
support to succeed as the economic development of
the country was intrinsically linked to the
development of the university.
Prof Daniel Mireku-Gyimah, Vice Chancellor, UMaT,
noted that Ghana is potentially rich because it is
endowed with abundant mineral resources like gold,
diamond, bauxite, manganese, salt, iron and
limestone.
He indicated that the challenge was how to use the
correct mining and processing methods to exploit
these minerals in an environmentally friendly
manner.
Prof Mireku-Gyimah said the resolution of this
challenge was subsumed in the mandate of the
university which underscored its role in national
development.
"The direct logical inference is that if we need to
develop our country to become an industrialised
nation then we need to develop this university and
we need to resource it amply so that it can carry
out its mandate effectively," he said.
Prof Mireku-Gyimah said the Wassa Fiase Traditional
Council had donated a 26-kilometre land for the
development of the new campus of the university.
The university started as the Tarkwa Institute and
was officially inaugurated in October 1953 by Sir
Arden Clarke, the Governor of the then Gold Coast.
In 1960, it became the Tarkwa School of Mines.
In 1976, it was affiliated to the Kwame Nkrumah
University of Mines and Technology (KNUST) as a
faculty and given the name KNUST School of Mines.
In 2000, it was re-organised to become Western
University College and on November 3, 2004, an Act
of Parliament established it as a fully fledged
University of Mines and Technology, which empowered
it to award its own certificates, diplomas and
degrees.
The university awarded degrees in the various
disciplines to 230 graduates.
Out of the number, 34 were awarded Master of Science
(M. Sc), 197, Bachelor of Science (B. Sc) while 31
obtained first class.
Ghanadot
