JACCD Design Institute Africa, the first private creative university in West Africa and Ghana’s leading creative design university has opened its ultra-modern campus at North Legon in Accra to offer quality creative education to creative innovators.
The new campus hosts air-conditioned lecture halls, syndicated rooms, faculty and administrative block, tech-enabled labs/studios, galleries and a design incubator, a state-of-the-art computer centre, one of the best creative arts libraries in Ghana and a 400-seater auditorium to facilitate public events.
Speaking at the launch, the President and Founder of JACCD Design Institute Africa, Joyce Ababio, reiterated her commitment to educating Africa’s creative thinkers and innovators.
“Our focus at JACCD DIA is to develop curriculum that can be a standard to any design school in the world and have faculty design lessons in ways that make students desire to solve problems critically. Our university will support students to be creative, think originality and unconventionally, and to push boundaries; above all, we will teach them to be ethical, professional, respectful, to value diversity and inclusion and of course embrace the unknown.”
She added: “We are not here to reinvent the wheel but assist our students in Africa and beyond to take the wheel and add their own solutions to make it better. This can be achieved through critically adapting to circumstances and providing solutions. Now more than ever, the world needs an abundance of creative thinkers and practitioners. Without individuals who think differently, who can reinvent the rules to solve the complex challenges today”?
Deputy Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Mark Okraku Mantey, on his part, stressed on government’s contributions in supporting JACCD Design Institute Africa, to nurture a new crop of entrepreneurs and workers to drive the Creative Arts industry. He said, “For the implementation of policy-based, innovation-oriented strategies to be developed in all aspect of national development, creativity is the key”.
The special Guest of Honour, the First Lady of the Republic of Ghana, Rebecca Akufo-Addo was represented by the Director-General for the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Service, Mawusi Nudekor Awitey.
Speaking on behalf of the first lady, Ms. Awitey congratulated Joyce Ababio and her team. She emphasised that creative education is the backbone of industries all over the world and we as a country cannot overlook this ‘goldmine’ with perceptions, attitudes and wrongful tagging, we rather encourage our wards to engage in creative and critical thinking to become better citizens.
Several dignitaries and stakeholders within the creative arts and education sectors – including the Director-General of Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC), Prof. Mohammed Salifu, representatives of the National Entrepreneurship & Innovation Programme (NEIP), representative of the Member of Parliament (MP) for Madina Constituency, Francis-Xavier Sosu, representatives of the University of Cape Coast and principals, career counselors of various high schools – graced the occasion.
JACCD Design Institute Africa, is fully operational and accepting students. The institution now offers unique learning opportunities for students across numerous programmes including Animation and Game Development, Fashion Design, Textile Design, Graphic Design, Interior Design, Film and Television, Photography and Special Effects Make-up.
