Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, says the Akufo-Addo-led administration intends to make alumni of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), a key stakeholder in the implementation of its present and future policies.

He said many of the alumni had expertise in assisting government to implement a robust development agenda in designing road construction, enhancing health care, education, and job creation among others, and could ensure the successful execution of science, technology, and innovation projects.

He declared the intention of the government on Wednesday, December 1 when he launched the 70th Anniversary Celebration of the KNUST virtually as the keynote speaker, at the University’s 11th Global Alumni Biennial Congress 2021 in Accra.

Knowledge accumulation and accreditation, he said, had become major factors in economic development and significantly pushed the country to take a competitive advantage in the global economy.

Dr. Bawumia said university education was a critical component of human development, which built the capacity and analytical skills of students to drive the local economy and support civil society to inculcate detective governance skills in young people, and KNUST was an example of such an efficient institution.

Government understood the entire educational system where from early childhood to tertiary levels, the curricula must reflect the global world economic development agenda, he said.

The Vice President said this increasingly demanded a better trained, more skilled, and adaptable human resource, many of whom were produced by the institution.

Professor Alex Doodoo, the Director-General of, Ghana Standards Authority, who graced the congress as the Chairman, said although universities were working hard to promote government’s developmental agenda, much more could be done.

“Has the investment Ghana made in science, technology, and innovation yielded expected benefits in terms of job creation and solving Ghana’s problems? How do we change the narrative? I believe it’s time we push the limits and throw the university challenge to the government.

“Government and the technological industry need to have a discussion, scare each other to feel uncomfortable. Industry and academia should hold government to account and government should hold them liable to the investments made in them.

“If we do nothing about the situation, we will suffer, all of us will suffer. All parties involved should move from their comfort zones to address the issues of importance. There are opportunities in energy where the youth can be directed. Solving the problem of the day is creating jobs for the youth,” Prof. Doodoo said.

Mrs. Cynthia Asare Bediako, the Chairperson of the Local Organising Committee of the Congress, said the alumni aimed at contributing to support the university and members, enhancing skills of members, and seeking collaboration as individuals, public servants, non-governmental organisations, politicians, industry players, and professionals.

“If there is any institution to help Ghana achieve her beyond aid agenda, then its KNUST because it was an umbilical cord like that of the university that all developed nations adopted to attain their current status,” she said.

For science, technology, and innovation to remain relevant to national development, she said industrialisation ought to be fabricated in academia.

Mrs Bediako admonished the alumni to through the congress, bring to bear that ‘the world is science, technology, and innovation, and the partner is KNUST’.