The Ghana National Gas Company (GNGC) is injecting an initial amount of two million Ghana cedis into the ten-million-cedi Centre of Excellence in E-Vehicle and Industrial Welding Technologies project being undertaking at the Sunyani Technical University (STU).
The project seeks to build capacity for the university in its niche area of Electrical and Electronics Engineering for the production of E-vehicles and E-batteries from local materials and technologies.
When completed, the centre will offer opportunity for training and research in electric vehicle manufacturing to enable Ghana to join the global transition from the use of fossil fuel vehicles to clean energy usage in vehicular operations in the country.
The Vice-Chancellor of STU, Ing. Prof. Kwadwo Adinkrah-Appiah, in an exclusive interview with the media in Sunyani, said the construction of the first phase of the project is expected to start this month as the contractor will soon commence work.
He explained that the first phase of the project primarily entails the construction of the physical structures that would house the equipment and the machinery while the second phase would encompass the furnishing of the building with the equipment and machinery meant for the project.
Ing. Prof. Adinkrah-Appiah paid glowing tribute to the GNGC for its swift and timely intervention, which has ensured that the project becomes a reality in due course.
He was optimistic that Ghana Gas and other corporate organisations would support the University to mobilise the remaining eight million Ghana cedis, which is estimated to be the cost of the state-of-the-art equipment to be installed at the center upon the completion of phase 1 of the project.
2022 Monumental
Touching on how STU fared last year, the Vice-Chancellor described the year 2022 as “quite monumental in the history of STU.”
“We successfully celebrated our 55th Anniversary with a lunch of an Endowment Fund to raise funds for the implementation of the 40-year master plan for the university. We equally chalked several successes in many areas of the University's development including the re-construction of one of the main entrances of the institution, painting of all physical structures on campus, renovation of student hostel facilities, the introduction of more 4-year degree programmes and Master’s degree programmes, and forming of more international collaborations etc”, he stated.
The Vice-Chancellor also mentioned the grand durbar and fundraising dinner held in November as part of the University’s 55th anniversary, which brought together students, staff, alumni, industry captains and other stakeholders of the University as well as the signing of articulation agreement with University of Maryland Eastern Shore, UMES, to give opportunity for BTech graduates from STU to pursue PharmD degree in the US as some of the high-points of STU in the past year.
“We also held capacity building workshops for all our Senior Members in contemporary research under the sponsorship of the Scholarship Secretariat of Ghana. These high points have contributed to the institution's development as they have helped build capacity especially for the faculty”, Ing. Prof. Adinkrah-Appiah added.
“We'll continue to build upon these foundations in order to achieve the University's vision of becoming the university of choice in Ghana and Africa for raising the next generation of industry captains for national, regional and global transformation”, he emphasised.