World Bank - IFC team visits Ashesi

by Sarah Mills with Akuba Agyeman Boakye

Ashesi University students, faculty and administrators interacted with a team of World Bank and IFC (a member of the World Bank Group) officials at the university’s premises on Tuesday, February 9, 2010. The team that visited were led by Ishac Diwan, Country Director for Ghana, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone and Liberia; Mary-Jean Lindile Ndlovu, IFC Country Manager for sub-Saharan Africa and Kyle Kelhofer, Senior Investment Officer.

The team first met with administrators and faculty; where Ashesi’s President Awuah gave a brief overview of the university’s progress and plans for expansion. He outlined Ashesi’s focus on building an environmentally-friendly campus with plans to harvest rain water, use building materials from the site, installation of biogas technology and even the possibly of adapting solar energy technology. “We are excited about Ashesi’s success so far and continue to imbibe in our students the importance of doing the right thing even when no one is watching; the basis of the university’s Examination Honour Code.

We are on a mission to change how Africa’s leaders are educated by turning out graduates who are ethical, innovative and entrepreneurial,” Awuah said. In early 2009, the IFC invested $2.5 million in Ashesi to enable the university begin the construction of a permanent campus in Berekuso, a village approximately 15 miles north of Accra. The first phase of construction will enable Ashesi to double its enrollment to 800 students. Kyle Kelhofer of the IFC said, “the IFC chose to invest in Ashesi because of the university’s great business model, commercial viability and its developmental potential”.

Ishac Diwan, Country Director emphasized Ashesi’s importance, especially at this time in Africa’s history where there’s the need for critical-thinking leaders who can make a difference. He said, “it’s interesting to see in Africa, a place such as Ashesi, where students can question, think, share ideas and build bridges which, I believe will eventually lead to regional integration.”

The team later met and interacted with a cross-section of student representatives for a question and answer session. Questions asked varied from the disbursement of Millennium Development Account funds; World Bank commitments; the structural adjustment programs of the 1980s; the situation in Haiti and the role of the International Development Association.

Mary-Jean Lindile Ndlovu and Ishac Diwan answered the students’ questions. She reminded the students present about the quality of education Ashesi offers them and the importance of developing their critical-thinking and communication skills if they want to be successful.