The appointment of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), as the ‘Mentoring tertiary institution and affiliate’ to the new College of Industrial Development (UID), Accra, Ghana, took a more concrete dimension on February 21 when the Proprietor and Founder of UID, Ambassador Shelly Amos, and his team met the Monitoring Team set up by ABUAD.
In the letter conveying ABUAD’s new appointment, Amos said UID, the first of its type in Africa, is established to answer the belated call for the establishment of indigenous higher learning Institutions in Africa to re-orientate the minds of young Africans towards building world class industries.
This objective, he said, is being achieved through the provision of pragmatic, functional education and competitive management capacity that will lead to sustainable industrial independence for Ghana in particular and Africa in general.
Rationalizing ABUAD’s new role, Amos said: “We, in UID fervently believe you are one of the foremost believers in the need for us to save Africa from becoming a perpetual dumping ground for goods and products made in India, Korea, China and Brazil as well as other countries which were once ranked with Nigeria as Third World Countries”.
He added: “From those profitable ventures we witnessed in your commercial farms during your last convocation ceremony, there is no doubt in our minds that those were established because you selflessly believe that Africans should start to develop our own indigenous products, especially from Agriculture and our abundant natural resources.
“This is why you are more than qualified to be our Mentor for this ambitious intercontinental objective. “We were quite amazed by the overwhelming state-of-the-art educational facilities and the relaxed and conducive environment of learning which you provided for the students. We are particularly impressed by the high standard of the graduating students and the initiative to reward excellence both in academics and behavior.
“We have also taken our time to make adequate enquiries into the performance and delivery of quality education by ABUAD since its establishment and we have noted beyond reasonable doubt that your university has met all the required qualifications set up by NAB of Ghana for you to mentor our institution, the UID…”.
According to UID’s Founder, ABUAD’s mentorship appointment is in accordance with National Accreditation Board (NAB) of Ghana’s rules and regulations guiding the setting up of new tertiary institutions in the West African country.
Specifically, Amos pointed out that one of the initial conditions for accreditation of a new University College in Ghana is for the institution to seek for affiliation with a reputable and accredited university within or outside Ghana to serve as a Mentor “to ensure the attainment and maintenance of high standard for the promotion of academic quality”.
In return, the mentoring institution, ABUAD in this case, will provide academic support and supervision to the university being mentored while the mentored university in Ghana, UID in this instance, shall be receiving ABUAD’s certificate until Ghana’s Accreditation Board grants UID the Presidential Charter.
Following the February meeting Amos and his wife had with the Ag. Vice Chancellor, Prof. Michael Ajisafe, the Representative of ABUAD’s Board of Trustees (BOT), Prof. I.O. Orubuloye and the provost, College of Engineering, Prof. Israel Owolabi, who is the Chairman of the Monitoring Committee, the trio of Owolabi, Orubuloye and ABUAD’s Director of Academic Planning, Dr, Yekeen Lawal will soon be in Ghana for an in situ assessment of the goings-on in UID.