The Africa Centres of Excellence (ACE) Regional Transport Research and Education Centre Kumasi (TRECK), Regional Water and Environmental Sanitation Centre Kumasi (RWESCK) and the KNUST Engineering Education Project (KEEP) all ACE Impact Centres in the KWAME Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi established by the Government of Ghana with funds from the World Bank to train high calibre human capital for the sustainable development of Ghana and the sub region have decided to collaborate to train staff of the Fourah Bay College (FBC), Faculty of Engineering in areas such as Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrival Engineering, Telecommunications Engineering.
Delivering a message from the Provost of the College of Engineering, Prof. Mark Adom - Asamoah to the Deputy Vice Chancellor of FBC- Prof. J.A Lawrence Kamara, the Centre Director of TRECK and leader of the mission Prof. Charles Anum Adams on behalf of Prof. Kwabena Biritwum Nyarko and Prof. Samson Oduro - Kwateng, Centre Leaders of KEEP and RWESCK respectively intimated that the KNUST Centres have a mandate to train over 150 PhDs, 280 MSc and 800 professional Short course attendees in the period 2019-2024 in all the over 16 disciplines of Engineering offered at KNUST.
He reiterated that 30% of all admissions are reserved for brilliant females and nationals of West African countries including Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Cote Ivoire, Liberia, Burkina Faso etc. who are also awarded scholarships including Tuition fees, stipend, accommodation, immigration costs, Covid 19 tests and in some cases return air fares . The Scholarships are provided by the Government of Ghana through the World Bank facility under the ACE Impact Project. He encouraged as many qualified graduates of the subregion to apply for admission and scholarships. The Deputy Vice Chancellor expressed hope that FBC and Sierra Leoneans would take advantage of the collaboration and scholarships to increase the number of FBC faculty with PhDs which currently stands at less than 20%. He lamented that this is unacceptably low for one of Africa’s oldest Universities.
In a related development the Government of the Republic of Sierra Leone has made funds available through the Integrated Resilience Urban Mobility Project (IRUMP), being implemented by the Ministry of Transport and Aviation (MTA) for TRECK to support capacity building of the transport the sector by training, mentoring and providing needed technical assistance to the staff of FBC and MTA. This came to light when the KNUST/TRECK delegation paid a courtesy call on the Ghana High Commissioner to Sierra Leone- His Excellency Francis Abeka in Freetown during a 5 days mission to Sierra Leone. The delegation had bilateral exchanges with the Freetown City Council, Ministry of Transport and Aviation, Sierra Leone Road Authority, Sierra Leone Institute of Engineers and the World Bank.
