Former UMaT Vice-Chancellor advocates for tax waivers and incentives for private tertiary institutions

Ghanaian

Prof. J S Y Kuma, a former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT), has requested that the government provide tax waivers and educational facility incentives to private tertiary education institutions to relieve their financial burden.

He explained that given the unfeasibility of the government's support through Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund), and the incomplete financial support

Read full articleof state tertiary institutions from the fund, an alternative needed to be explored.

Prof. Kuma, according to Graphic Online, stated that it would be challenging for the government to provide significant financial support to private tertiary institutions, given its inability to provide full financial support to state institutions.

He suggested that incentives such as tax exemptions and concessions when taxing educational items for the private sector education would be more appropriate and provide financial relief to the more than 158 private tertiary institutions in operation in the country.

Prof. Kuma commended the Christian tertiary institutions for their significant and crucial role in delivering quality tertiary education in the private sector.

He noted that nine out of ten private institutions chartered so far were Christian-based institutions, which was impressive and demonstrated their important role in private education.

He appealed to educational stakeholders to continuously preserve, maintain, and manage the various Christian tertiary institutions to serve the needs of Ghanaians who would choose an educational system embedded in Christian values for their children.

In his report, Prof. Samuel K Afrane, the President of CSUC, stated that plans were underway for the college to receive its charter to become a fully-fledged university.

He added that the CSUC would soon introduce new demand-driven and relevant academic programs, such as MSC Digital Marking, MSc Investment and Financial Risk Management, MA Events Management, BSc Cybersecurity, and the first doctoral program in ministry.

Prof. Afrane also mentioned that the CSUC had undertaken several infrastructural projects, including the development of a local water supply system for campus consumption, the construction of an entire floor for the Nursing and Midwifery Department, and the upgrading and development of new infrastructure in response to the growing demands.

Other developments include the completion of five new offices, facelifts of the staff common room and the library, and the provision of 300 new chairs for the lecture hall.

The CSUC's recent 47th graduation ceremony saw a total of 438 graduates. Of these, 180 were postgraduates and 258 were undergraduates from the Faculties of Humanities and the School of Business, Health, and Allied Sciences.