SME Times News Bureau | 24 Nov, 2017
Following the
success stories of Indian-owned educational institutions Bluecrest University
(formerly NIIT) and IPMC Training in Ghana, other Indian companies can take
advantage of the government's decision to offer tax breaks to entrepreneurs to
improve the country's education sector.
Presenting the 2018 budget earlier this month, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta
said Ghana is considering tax breaks to assist entrepreneurs in the higher
institutions sector to help position the country as a higher-education hub as
of the recent growth in the sector which has attracted students from the West
African region to the country.
Figures from the National Accreditation Board (NAB) show that there are 10
public universities and 79 private universities in the country. There are also
five registered tertiary institutions. But these do not seem to be serving the
enormous number of students looking to enter universities.
Ofori-Atta said the education sector represents high-growth potential with
multiplier effects on the economy as confirmed by a recent "Country
Private Sector Diagnostic" study by the World Bank Group. This is also
borne out by the rapid growth in privately-owned and managed universities as
well as in the inward flow of students from the West Africa sub-region.
It was, therefore, the government's intention to "support the sector in
order to position Ghana as the premier higher education hub of the sub-region
and to attract critical foreign direct investment into the sector".
The World Bank-International Monetary Fund report said the capacity of Ghana's
public universities has not kept pace with demand and only half of all
applicants to public universities can be admitted. It described this as a
growth area that needs more investment.
The report said student enrolment in tertiary education is growing at 10 per
cent annually, from 175,000 in 2011 to 267,000 in 2014. "However, the
tertiary gross enrolment rate remains at only 18 percent, as opposed to a
target of 25 per cent set by the government, leaving room to improve access to
higher education," the report noted.
It said the demand for tertiary education is expected to continue to grow
strongly, given the increasing enrolment at the senior high-school level. To
keep up with rising demand and high gross enrolment rate targets, the
government is considering distance education as a key solution.
"Distance education comprises about 15 per cent of total tertiary
enrolment, with University of Cape Coast being the largest provider (about
37,000 enrolments). Apart from public universities, some private universities,
such as Laweh Open University College and Accra Institute of Technology, also
offer distance education," the report said. However, the presence of
private providers is limited to less than one per cent.
Last year, the President of the Accra Institute of Technology (AIT), Clement
Dzidonu, said the current number of higher institutions for a population of 25
million translates into a university per capita rate of around 3.5 compared to
the global average of 18.6. As a result, he said, given the Gross Enrolment
Rate of tertiary education in Ghana, the country was registering just 10 per
cent as against the global average of 27 per cent.