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World Bank – IFC team visits Ashesi

Ashesi University students, faculty and administrators interacted with a team of World Bank and IFC 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, install biogas technology and the possibly of adapting solar energy technology. He said, “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 our examination honor code”.

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. Ishac Diwan said, “Ashesi’s presence in Africa is a strategic one because Africa’s in dire need of leaders who are empathic, critical thinking and want to make a difference—the very core of the Ashesi mission”.

Kyle Kelhofer of the IFC, could not agree with him more, “we at the IFC chose to invest in Ashesi because of the university’s great business model, commercial viability and its developmental potential”, he added.

The team later met with and 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 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 are to be successful.

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