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Sabbah Hall Alumni list
"Vikings Investment Fund" on GSE
Accra, March 20, Ghanadot/GNA - The Mensah Sabbah Hall
Alumni Association of the University of Ghana on Thursday
made history to be the first to introduce a closed-end
mutual fund on the Ghana Stock Exchange aimed at
constructing a state-of-the-art accommodation facility for
students.
The fund, known as the Vikings Investment Fund made its
initial public offer on Thursday, to raise 7.3 million GH
cedis, with the Prudential Securities Limited as the lead
sponsoring brokers and CIDAN Investments and Advisory
Services as managers.
As a closed-end fund, the offer was to provide liquidity to
investors who wish to exit or cash out their investment at
any time, as well as earn capital appreciation and dividend
income on their shares.
New shares therein would not be created, but there would be
offers and bids on a continuing basis throughout the life of
the Fund. The offer, which is expected to end on April 14,
2008, has pegged its share price at 5Gp per share.
Launching the Fund, Professor Dominic Fobih, Minister of
Education Science and Sports lauded the initiative saying;
"At a time when growth in facilities at the Universities do
not march increased demand, the fund, given its aim will
largely help to solve the problem."
He said government, realising the importance of tertiary
education, had for the past seven years consistently
increased the budgetary allocations to the tertiary sector.
Prof. Fobih said under the Teaching and Learning Fund,
government had committed about 7.48 million GH cedis last
year for improvement in infrastructure facilities in
tertiary institutions in addition to a 34 million GH cedis
it voted earlier.
Additionally, the Education Minister announced that
Parliament last week approved 51.2 million GH cedis, which
is 31.4 percent of the total expected revenue under the Get
Fund for tertiary education.
For Mr. Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, Minister of Finance and Economic
Planning said, the Fund was a perfect idea and an innovation
that would further enhance Ghana's capital market.
"Ghana's savings rate is low between eight to 10 percent
compared to the 25 percent world average figure.
"Our ability to increase the savings rate depends on many
factors, which included new innovative products like Vikings
Investment Fund by the Alumni of the Sabbah Hall."
Mr. Baah-Wiredu said, as the country grew, it was important
that its service sector's share in the Gross Domestic
Product increased to a level far more than its agricultural
and manufacturing sector.
Mr. John Saka Addo, Chairman, Prudential Bank Limited said
the problem of accommodation at the universities had come
about as a result of over-utilisation of facilities and lack
of adequate expansion.
He was confident that the Fund would offer an attractive
investment returns to all prospective shareholders giving
the grave needs of accommodation every year at the
University of Ghana.
Prof. Kwesi Yankah, Pro-Vice Chancellor of University
described the idea as a "residential nationalism" which had
been made possible through a sense of social cohesion
created out of distinctive identity of a hall.
According to him, "The Sabbah Hall Alumi has targeted a key
source of stress within the University of Ghana over the
years."
He said of the about 28,000-student population at the
University, only 9,000 lived in traditional halls, with the
rest living in rented hotels outside the university.
"Congestion at the halls of the university is serious and is
adversely affecting academic work," Prof. Yankah noted.
Mr. Kwaku Kyei, President of the Vikings Alumni Association
said the idea to construct the hostel to be named Sabbah
Hall Annex C, was conceived by the Alumni five years ago.
He said the initial attempt to rely on Alumni members to
begin the project, yielded little result thus compelling the
Association to seek the investment approach, which gave
birth to Vikings Investment Fund.
He said the University provided the land on which the
project would be put up and urged other halls, both at Legon
and other universities in the country to emulate the idea.
GNA
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