Dr Martin Luther Obeng, President of the Radford University College (RUC), has reignited calls for the government
to consider extending support from the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) to private tertiary institutions.
He said such support would enable the institutions to identify gaps within the sector and develop tailor-made
programmes to improve on the human resource capacity of the country.
Dr Obeng made the appeal in an interview with the media, on the sidelines of the 8 th Graduation and 12 th
Matriculation ceremony, of RUC in Accra, over the weekend.
The GETFund was created by Act 581 of 2000, with the primary objective of providing finance to supplement the
provision of educational activities at all levels.
The sources of funding of the GETFund is 2.5 per cent value added tax (VAT) or any other higher rate as Parliament
may determine; investment income; Parliament allocations; grants, donations and gifts and vested property.
In recent years, there have been calls for the government to extend the facility to private tertiary institutions, a call
the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC), the body tasked to, among other things, accredit and regulate
tertiary institutions, has rebuffed, describing private tertiary institutions as “private business.”
Dr Obeng, however, believed that extending the facility to private tertiary institutions as a form of incentive would
significantly improve their contributions to the education system.
“We really need GETFund support. If GETFund should get us a bus today we are happy…If government sees what
we are doing to motivate others, they can give incentives to us (private institutions), they can give scholarships, they
can give incentive to management.
The Daily Searchlight supports the proposal that GETFUND assistance be provided to all educational institutions in
Ghana, public or private.
Even though these private universities are businesses on their own, they provide a need that goes to benefit all
Ghanaians and the economy as a whole.
They provide employment, provide education and training to Ghanaian students, and pay their statutory obligations
such as taxes and rates. They also contribute to the funds that go to create GETFUND, and of necessity, should
benefit from whatever good comes out of GETFUND.
It is therefore proportionate, that if the State has facilities that extend support to educational institutions, that private
educational companies also benefit. Their services are also as necessary as the service provided by the institutions
owned by government, and ought to be put on the same stead with them.
Editorial of the Daily Searchlight of 24 th July, 2024
