The Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II has renewed calls for the completion of the KNUST Teaching Hospital, which has stalled for over 15 years.
The medical centre, which was expected to be completed within 6 years of its commencement, currently stands partly completed, despite numerous assurances for its absolute completion by successive governments.
Bemoaning the delayed project, the Asantehene highlighted the critical need for the hospital’s completion to complement healthcare delivery in the Ashanti region.
The KNUST Teaching Hospital is among major health facilities expected to help boost quality healthcare delivery in the Ashanti region.
But like many other health projects, the completion of the 125-million-dollar medical center has not seen the light of day since 2007.
Speaking at the final session of the 58th Special Congregation of the KNUST, the Asantehene impressed on the project’s completion to facilitate decongestion at other health facilities in the region.
“My next teaching hospital is still not finished even though there has been tremendous progress. I am passionate about this project because of the peculiar purpose it is going to serve. When finished, it will complement the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital and in the training of medical and allied health students of KNUST,” he urged the Vice President to impress upon the matter to the President.
Assuring of the government’s support for its completion, Vice President Professor Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang reiterated the government’s commitment to fostering research for national development.
“This is very important, and I want to assure you that this concern to the president and I have no doubt he will talk the right steps to address the issue,” she assured.
Prof. Naana Agyemang continued that: “Government commits to creating a sustained resource base to support research. This same commitment motivated the NDC, in 2016, to begin setting up the National Research Fund. We are once again committed to making the fund operational and as a result set up a board for it and secretariat with an initial amount of 50 million cedis from the GETFund,”.
She further assured of the government’s non-interference in academic freedom.
The Special Congregation assembled over 8,000 graduates, comprising undergraduates and majorly postgraduate students at the university.
Ingwenyama of the Kingdom of Eswatini, King Mswati III, admonished the graduates to harness emerging technologies to chart a path for the fourth Industrial Revolution in Africa.
“The challenges you face be it in Science, Technology, Health and Environment, society or other sectors, will be indeed complex. Your education has prepared you not to just adapt to change but lead. The world today is all about technology and artificial intelligence, we look up to you to lead us with the new norm we are faced with,” he said.