Vice-Chancellor Inspects Projects In Kumasi
The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Emmanuel Ohene Afoakwa, and a team from the Directorate of Works and Physical Development, visited Kumasi to inspect and possibly takeover some projects which were at various levels of completion.
The visit which took place on Tuesday 4th March saw the team visit the Kumasi Learning Center where they were supposed to fully takeover a fence-wall which was handed over on an interim basis in July last year. With the six-month defect liability period elapsing in January, the team led by the VC was expectant of a defect free project so that they could relieve the contractor of his contractual obligations. However, it was not to be, as the team discovered a few cracks in the wall after inspection.
By the terms of the contract, the contractor was therefore requested to rectify the defects before he would be issued with the Certificate of Completion.
“We have to defer the taking over for today until the contractor rectifies the defects before we can do that on a later date”, the Director of Works and Physical Development, Surv. Gordon Baapiri said.
He added that “it means that half of his retention will delay until he has fixed the cracks”.
The VC suggested that the defects were not too bad and expected the contractor to get them fixed very quickly for the project to be taken over.
“This defect is not much. I’m sure it can be corrected very quickly so that immediately after Easter, we’ll get it done”.
Surv. Baapiri was nonetheless very happy with the quality of the wall generally, saying that apart from those few cracks, the rest of the wall was solid and neat. That opinion was also shared by the VC who lauded the contractor’s work ethic and willingness to take on the additional responsibility of constructing a septic tank and donating a trip of chippings for the compound which were not part of the original contract.
The VC was particularly thankful for the chippings saying, “we are happy for that because it would have put pressure on us to get the compound done immediately”.
It can be recalled that at the interim takeover of the fence-wall on 11th July 2022, the VC promised that the campus would be given a facelift with some construction works this year.
“We will continue with the works from next year (2023) because we didn’t have the budget for the rest of this year to do the additional works. We will get the pavements done and ensure that we paint the walls and buildings to get them in uniformity with our colours”, Prof. said.
However, Prof. has confirmed that plan now has been put on hold because the focus has changed.
“We wanted the compound to be paved this year but because we don’t have students here and there’s no real urgency, we have decided that we’ll suspend it a bit till about next year while we work on securing accreditation which process is ongoing”.
The Coordinator for the Kumasi Learning Center, Mr. George Akom Mensah, who made a passionate plea for some renovation works to be done on the classroom block particularly the roof which he said leaks badly, was assured that a team would be dispatched from Accra soon to assess the extent of damage and to fix it.
Newly Introduced Programmes
Wrapping up on the Kumasi Campus, the VC hinted that the plan for the university is to strengthen the Main Campus in Accra in terms of infrastructure and enrolment and then work at expanding to Kumasi and other places.
“The plan is to make the Main Campus very stable and strong in student numbers which I’m sure in the next three or four years the place will be filled up and then we’ll have to expand. So, the plan is to come and build at Asokore Mampong”, Prof. hinted adding that “with the new programmes being rolled out, there is going to be serious demand”.
Under the visionary and able leadership of the VC, Prof. Afoakwa, the university has introduced new programmes to its curricular at all levels. Some of the programmes include Cyber Security at Diploma and BSc levels, Data Science and Analytics at Diploma and BSc levels, Computer Science at BSc, MSc, MPhil and PhD levels among several others. The VC was very certain that these new programmes will sell since there is high demand for professionals in those fields.
Cyber Security and Data Science and Analytics especially are a novelty in Ghana and are tipped to grow very quickly and become the university’s mainstay like Engineering and ICT.
Prof. added that, “so when we get the students enrolling on these programmes in their numbers, we’ll build Accra so fast and see how we can move out to other places such as Kumasi. We’ll look at how we can capture the Kumasi market in the area of ICT”.
He was upbeat about the ability of the university to derive maximum benefit from the programmes.
“If we market our new programmes very well, there’s no university in Ghana that can compete. In the area of ICT alone, we admitted over 1,200 students this year so if the other programmes can give us those numbers, then we’ll be in good business”. Prof. added.
Interim Takeover of Asokore Mampong (Silicon Valley Annex)
After the Kumasi Satellite campus, the team’s next stop was Asokore Mampong where they inspected the completion of another fence-wall for the university’s 4.7-acre land. The university acquired the land for the future development of a campus in that part of Kumasi.
The fencing project was the initiative of the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Emmanuel Ohene Afoakwa, to secure the land for the future development of an ICT campus which he dubbed “Silicon Valley Annex”.
The project was awarded to Web Builders Ltd, the same contractor who worked on the Kumasi Satellite Campus fence-wall, on 1st March 2022 and work commenced on 27th March 2022. There was, however, a slight delay due to some additional works which the contractor had to take up. There was also the case of unexpected price escalations which forced the contractor to go and look for funds to continue the project.
“We have come here today to take over the project on the interim for the six-month defect liability period to commence”, Surv. Gordon Baapiri said.
On his part, the VC thanked the Director of Works and Physical Development and the contractor for a very good job done. “It is very clear that Web Builder Ltd has done a good job. The wall looks good, nice and strong”, the VC added.
The VC made clear his intention to secure the assets of the university saying that, “this wall symbolizes the fact that we are serious about keeping our land safe from encroachment. With this beautiful wall, we have been able to secure the Asokore Mampong land for the Silicon Valley Annex”.
He added that, “we are building the Accra campus as the Silicon Valley of Ghana and once that is done, we’ll extend the Silicon Valley agenda to Kumasi to this huge and beautiful land where we can continue raising the 8-storey structures”.
Prof. Afoakwa disclosed that the chief of the area gave the land out because he believed that with GCTU, it would be developed to make the area unique.
“I believe that by God’s grace we will surely make him proud by raising our high-rise structures here as an IT university”, he said adding “we will be extending our tentacles from Accra once we are able to build a niche area as the best ICT university in West Africa”.
The VC however requested that a signpost should be erected by the wall bearing the name of the university and the inscription “Silicon Valley Annex” as an additional security measure.
