Not all the winds might have been taken out of the sail of Ghanaian graduates and graduants in China due to the pandemic, as the Academic committee of National Union of Ghana Students in China, in collaboration with the Ghana Missions Beijing hosts Prof. Emeritus Stephen Adei and other renowned Ghanaian educationist in grand graduates farewell forum on Sunday evening.
Also in attendance with the over 100 Ghanaian college and university graduates from several academic fields across china, were Prof. Kwame Antwi Agyeman, Director General and Chief Scientist at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Dr. Ato Akorful Andam, a lecturer at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Dr. Bright Nkrumah, a lecturer at University of Ghana (Legon), Ms Florence Adwoa Ansah Asare, President of the Ghana Trained Ghanaian Professionals, and the diplomatic corps of the Ghana Embassy in Beijing spearheaded by H.E. Edward Boateng together with his Deputy, H.E. Charles Dwamena.
Already introduced as an educationist, writer, economist, theologian, motivational speaker and also doubling as the Chairman for both the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the National Development Planning Commission, Prof. Adei began by acknowledging the achievements of the graduates, and commending the Ghana Missions and the Union for the ingenuity in mentoring the graduants at an early stage in maximizing their contribution to the National Development plan. As a strong advocate for Nationalism, he advised the graduants to make a conscious effort to return home after their studies in view of the numerous opportunities and sectors thirsting for their expertise. Further expounding on the opportunities, he commended the current administration of Ghana for the implementation of a realistic long term development Agenda captured in the Ghana@100 booklet he showed to the students on set. This development plan which is envisaged to be completed in 2057 focuses on the absolute peace and security of Ghana, long term Economic growth and independence of Ghana, Social growth through Education and Health development and others which need the efforts, skills, and expertise of both locally and foreign trained professionals like his audience
In order to fit into the highly competitive environment of Ghana as a foreign trained graduate however, Prof. Adei advised the audience to acquire and develop some important skills such as language, communication and teamwork skills in order to fully be effective in whichever sector they find themselves. “Graduation is not an end to education, you must never stop learning” he added.
In an earlier address, the CSIR Boss, Prof. Kwame Agyeman, had also advocated the need for the graduants to return to Ghana and the need to reflect but not sorely dwell on their achievements but strive for higher achievements in order to be much more useful to their communities. Speaking about the status and importance of Scientific Research in Ghana, the CSIR Chairman commended the current Government for their initiative to provide 1% of Ghana’s GDP for scientific research as part of the National Development plan. He recounted that, the work of the CSIR is playing an active role in the ongoing one district one factory (1D1F), the one village one dam (1V1D), planting for food and other development policies of this administration. He admonished—by reiterating earlier submissions from Dr. Akorful Andam and Dr. Nkrumah—the Ghanaian foreign trained professionals to come home and develop their own start-ups to ensure financial freedom and development of the Ghanaian Economy.
The Ambassador, H.E. Boateng, ended the about two-hour presentation session by congratulating the students and imploring them to make use of the networks they have built in the diaspora as they pursue their dreams. He further advised to focus on using their skills to solve socio-economic problems. In his own words, “The Pandemic has reset the Economic and social clock of the world economies, it is therefore the time for Africa and for that matter Ghana, to amass all of its intellectual wealth for the development of the country”
In giving the vote of thanks, Benjamin Ohene Kwapong Baffoe, the Chairman for the session and Chairperson of the Academic Committee thanked the Ghana Diplomatic Corps and the resource persons for honoring the invitation to make the program a success.
Reported By
Bekoe Bernard Boamah
Secretary-General (NUGS-China)
