By Nicholas Osei-Wusi
The President of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and Ghana’s Minister for Education, Haruna Iddrisu, have jointly cut the sod for the construction of a €5 million Centre of Excellence for Green Technology support for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in Kumasi.
The project, to be executed in two years, has a Government of Ghana counterpart funding of GH¢600,000 and is to be hosted by the Kumasi Technical Institute (KTI) but serve other TVET trainees in the Ashanti Region.
The groundbreaking ceremony formed part of the official working visit of the German President to Ghana.
The Centre of Excellence for Green Technology is in furtherance of the long-standing Ghanaian-German cooperation.
It is meant to improve access for Ghanaian youth and professionals to demand-oriented and high-quality TVET programmes in fields relevant to green technology.
The project, being implemented by the Commission for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (CTVET), is to be executed by KfW.
Upon completion, the Centre, being hosted by the Kumasi Technical Institute, will have laboratories and workshops for Electronics, Domestic Electrical Installations and Piping, Green Technology, Refrigeration Technology, Mechanical Assembly, and green technology-oriented sanitary facilities.
The Minister for Education, Haruna Iddrisu, noted that the German-Ghanaian cooperation in TVET in recent years has resulted in about 40,000 Ghanaian youth directly benefiting from skills acquisition, with many other initiatives to be rolled out very soon.
The Director-General of the Commission for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, Zakaria Sulemana, noted that construction of the project will start immediately, assuring that all the required processes have been completed.
