Phoenix Insurance Company, a leading insurer in Ghana, has responded to calls for industry to team up with academia by boosting the University of Ghana Endowment Fund with a donation of GH¢250,000.00, as part of its corporate social investment towards in improving teaching and learning in institutions of higher learning in the country.
The company presented a cheque for GH¢100,000.00 as the first tranche with an assurance to present the remainder by mid-year 2018.
The Endowment Fund which is to be set up this year, is earmarked for addressing key areas of the university’s development programmes, including accommodation, curriculum development, recruitment, training and activities to enhance the socialisation of staff and students.
At a short ceremony at the University of Ghana on Thursday, January 4, Group CEO of CDH Financial Holdings Limited and board member of Phoenix Insurance Company Limited, Emmanuel Adu-Sarkodee, said that the gesture was worthy of consideration in view of the number of students likely to be absorbed by tertiary institutions across the country following the implementation of government’s free SHS programme which has seen large number of students enter varioussenior high schools.
“If we’re successful at implementing the free SHS programme, it will mean that our universities will require funding to be able to expand their infrastructure as well as support students who might be intelligent but needy. This is why Phoenix Insurance is leading the way as a reputable corporate institution to support the University of Ghana,” he added.
Mr. Adu-Sarkodee therefore called on other corporate organisations to join to plan for the expansion of lecture halls and residential accommodation and also look at how to ensure that the huge numbers do not affect the quality of teaching.
For his part, Managing Director of Phoenix Insurance, Henry Bukari, said that Phoenix Insurance believes that when they invest in students today, they will only be preparing great minds to take over the management of the company when they are gone.
He assured Ghanaians particularly patrons of insurance products of outfit’s commitment to contributing significant portions of the business’ profit into addressing challenges in communities therefore doing business with them only meant that they are helping build Ghana.
Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Prof. Ebenezer Oduro Owusu, expressed gratitude to Phoenix Insurance and the CDH Group for their timely support adding that it is a good start for the endowment fund and hoped that the rest of corporate Ghana will emulate the step to ensure that the bond between industry and academia is further deepened.
The University Don added that the university is focusedon improving on residential and lecture hall facilities as well as getting more lecturers to ensure the teacher-student contact is not short-changed in view of the expected intake due to the free SHS programme.
It will be recalled that the Group CEO of CDH Group announced at the 2017 Congregation of the Colleges of Health Sciences and Basic and Applied Sciences of the University of Ghana, Legon, where he was the special guest of honour, a GH¢250,000.00 donation to support the University’s Endowment Fund
