Decade Old Infrastructure Projects Abandoned At Tamale Polytechnic

Prof. Abdulai Salifu Asuro

The Authorities at the Tamale Polytechnic have expressed worry about government’s inability to release funds for the completion of some major infrastructural projects that were started some 10 years ago to enhance quality teaching and learning.

The Rector of the Polytechnic, Prof. Abdulai Salifu Asuro noted that a number of projects including the Library Complex, Lecture Halls and the 400-capacity ladies hostel had been abandoned and all the contactors vacated the sites due to what he described as “huge debts” they (contractors) had accumulated on such projects without corresponding payments GETFund.

Speaking at the 10^th Congregation of the Tamale Polytechnic, Prof Asuro observed that “Tamale Polytechnic has comparatively lagged behind over the years in infrastructural development. This is because some projects started a decade ago are yet to be completed and handed over to the Polytechnic. The main challenge has been lack of flow of funds to contractors to work on these projects”.

However, the Rector of Tamale Polytechnic commended the Government of Ghana through the National Council for Tertiary Education, the Ministry of Education and the GETFund for the continuous support on the growth and development of the Polytechnic. The Tamale Polytechnic is by far one of the oldest but most vulnerable institutions in Ghana especially when it comes to infrastructural provision.

Even though it remains one of the best performing Polytechnics in Ghana, the Institute is faced with a number of infrastructural problems including lecture halls, assemble halls, hostels, campus roads, streetlights and modern workshops among others. The road networks on the campus are nothing but a complete apology and most of the structures have far long exhausted their usefulness and begging replacement or renovation.

Meanwhile, the 10th Congregation of the Tamale Polytechnic awarded 1,429 graduates with Higher National Diploma (HND) Certificates in various disciplines for the 2015 graduating class. 

Out of the 1,429 graduands, 490 were awarded HND in Accountancy, 259 in Marketing, 58 in Agriculture Engineering, 41 in Mechanical Engineering and 245 in Secretaryship and Management Studies. In addition, 15 graduands were awarded HND certificates in Tourism, 101 in Statistics, 96 in Hotel, Catering and Institutional Management, 46 in Building Technology and 31 and 47 in Industrial Arts and Electronics respectively.

The Rector of Tamale Polytechnic, Prof Abdulai Salifu Asuro stated that the crop of graduates from the school were readily available for industries because they had had a unique practical hands-on training coupled with supervised internship with reputable institutions, which he said had equipped them with the required practical know-how to start work with or without further training. 

According to him, the Polytechnic was set to introduce a number of industry-driven specialized programmes to produce the necessary problem-solving technocrats to support the country’s industrialization drive. The Rector disclosed that three new programmes namely; Bachelor of Technology in Agricultural Engineering, Bachelor of Technology in Accounting with Computing and HND Fashion and Design had been introduced in the school as part of effort of making the Tamale Polytechnic a learning centre of excellence.

However, Prof Asuro strongly appealed to the government and for that matter the Ministry of Education to find it urgent to include the Tamale Polytechnic in the selected polytechnics for the conversion into Technical Universities, since it remains the premier Polytechnic in the three regions of the North.

He also used the occasion to appeal to graduands to explore various opportunities to achieve their goals.

The Chairman of the Governing Council of the Tamale Polytechnic, Ambassador Alhaji Abdullah Salifu also added his voice to the call on government and GETfund to release funds for the completion of all the abandoned infrastructural projects.

On her part, the Minister for Education, Professor Nana Jane Opoku Agyeamang in a speech read on her behalf said Tamale Polytechnic and Cape Coast Polytechnic were being reassessed to be included in the selected Polytechnics for Technical University status.