He said higher education was key to unlocking development potentials of any society, and it was appropriate for the state to continue to make adequate investments to produce quality human resource base to accelerate the socio-economic development of the nation.

Otumfuo Osei Tutu made the call when he inspected on-going development projects at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), designed to facilitate academic work.

The projects, most of which are being funded through internally-generated funds, as well as the World Bank, are in line with the University’s vision to improve the state of infrastructure. They included a four-storey water and sanitation centre, five-storey social sciences building complex, post-graduate business school building, six-storey lecture halls and offices for the College of Art and Built Environment (CABE).

The rest are five-storey classrooms and offices for the School of Nursing, lecture theatre and classrooms for clinical students, a bridge and walkway, and unveiling of the Paa Joe statue, as well as a car-parking terminal at the KNUST Hospital and senior members’ housing facility.

Otumfuo Osei Tutu, who is also the Chancellor of the University, encouraged contractors working on the projects to be committed to duty to ensure their successful completion.  He said the University being the nation’s foremost science and technology academic institution, would not relent in its efforts to bring facilities there to international standard.

Professor Kwasi Obiri-Danso, Vice-Chancellor of KNUST, said authorities have been designing alternative strategies to address some of the infrastructural challenges facing the university.   The Asantehene later planted two symbolic trees at the university campus to support the efforts to promote and sustain ecological diversity on campus. 

By Stephen Asante/Florence Afriyie Mensah, GNA