The promise followed an appeal by the chiefs of the Buem Traditional Area for a university to be established in the region to promote access to higher education for the people.

Speaking at a durbar in Jasikan last Monday as part of his tour of the Oti Region, the President said: “If God permits and we win the next elections, we will put in place structures to establish a university here as well.”

He said the creation of the six new regions had placed communities in the regions on an equal footing to receive equivalent share of development, rather than development being concentrated in the regional capitals only.

“Yesterday, we cut the sod for the Oti Regional Food and Agriculture Directorate in Nkwanta; today we are cutting the sod for the establishment of the Regional Educational Directorate here in Jasikan. Worawora will also have the Regional Health Directorate, while the Feeder Roads Directorate will be in Kete Krachi,” he said.

Four more years

President Akufo-Addo said infrastructural development in the region could be upscaled if the people gave his administration four more years to do more.

He said he was excited to hear from the Headmaster of the Bueman Senior High School (SHS) that since the free SHS policy was implemented, enrolment in the school had doubled from 1,000 students to 2,000.

The President said the school, which was made a model school by former President John Agyekum Kufuor, would soon have a science resource centre to improve the teaching and learning of science.

Touching on accommodation, he said: “Since the girls now have a new dormitory, I think it is only fair that the boys are also given a new dormitory and, therefore, it will be constructed.”

He promised the school a new bus and a pick-up and urged the first batch of free SHS students to study hard to guarantee exemplary results in this year’s West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).

Appreciation

The Paramount Chief of the Buem Traditional Area, Nana Aburam Kpandza, said the people were aware of the good work the President was doing and promised that they would show their appreciation at the appropriate time.

Earlier at Kadjebi, President Akufo-Addo had inaugurated a newly constructed Business Resource Centre (BRC).

The centre was established to promote and support the government’s national industrialisation agenda and also serve as a one-stop shop for business development and investment in the district.

The centre, which is one of the 67 BRCs currently being constructed across the country, will serve as an information repository that will provide a full range of world-class business development services for potential and existing entrepreneurs, especially those linked to the One-district, One-factory (1D1F) initiative.

The Akwamuhene of Kadjebi, Nana Owusu Sekyere, on behalf of the chiefs and the people of the area, thanked the President for the establishment of the resource centre and appealed to the government to expedite action to establish a ginger factory in the area.