Former Attorney General and Minister for Justice and a presidential hopeful, Joe Ghartey, says Ghana, through the education sector, can earn an amount of $2 billion annually.
According to the presidential hopeful of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), with careful and deliberate interventions in several sectors of the economy including the education sector, Ghana can in the short to medium term, turn its fortunes around.
The former Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, who said this at the launch of his “Hope and Unity Tour” in Sekondi–Takoradi, in the Western Region, added that the United Kingdom, for example, earned approximately £28.8 billion a year from international students.
He said that if Ghana could attract just ten per cent of this, it would earn the country almost the same amount it was seeking to borrow from the IMF annually.
Joe Ghartey emphasised that wherever educational institutions were situated, the environs experienced increased economic activity.
The former Railway Development Minister stated further that the foundation had already been laid in the education sector, adding that when he was at the university in the 1980s, there were hardly any international students, and only three universities.
He said Ghana currently has over 60 universities, with considerable numbers of international students.
He explained that should he win the primaries, and become the next President of Ghana, his government would take the steps that would make the country’s universities internationally competitive, to be able to attract more international students.
“These steps include increased regulation, targeted scholarships for lecturers, and some financial interventions,” he added.
He is currently in the Western North Region as he continues his nationwide tour dubbed “Hope and Unity”.
BY Daniel Bampoe
