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The Koforidua Technical University (KTU) is ready to support government in its effort to implement the ‘one district, one factory’ policy by training the requisite human resource in technical and vocational programmes.

To this end, the University, the first public university in the region, has established a faculty to provide training in health-related areas and the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation Development provides a mandatory entrepreneurial orientation to students.

Professor Mrs Smile Dzisi, Vice chancellor of the KTU, said this at a signing ceremony of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the KTU and the Centre for Plant Medicine Research (CPMR) to formalize a strategic collaboration between the two institutions.

She said “as the first public university in the Eastern Region, we in KTU, cannot afford to fold our hands in a wait-and-see attitude, instead we have been busy exploring possible areas of competitive advantage to position ourselves with the requisite human resource for this laudable initiative”.

Professor Dzisi said the collaboration with the CPMR had become necessary following the recent conversion of the then Koforiuda Polytechnic to the University status with its renewed mandate of providing more of science, technology and vocational education.

She said in selecting the Centre for the collaboration, the CPMR’s long and rich history of research into plant medicine, it state of the art laboratories and the industry oriented technical expertise was taken into account and added that as a young university, she had no doubt that the Centre would attain its mandate.

Under the MOU, the two institutions would offer among others joint degree programs, joint research activities, publications, seminars, conferences and academic meetings, industrial attachment and internship for staff and students and introduction of new programs of study.

Other activities include joint thesis supervision, adjunct lectureship, marketing of products from both institutions, exchange of academic and scientific materials and joint consultancy services.

Dr Augustine Ocloo, Executive Director of the CPMR, said their vision was to make herbal medicine a choice for all and has since developed over 30 medical products.

He said the Centre has six research departments comprising plant development, pharmaceutics, scientific information and a clinic.

He said over the years the Centre has been involved in the training of herbal practitioners from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and added that the Centre recognizes the potential of the KTU as an emerging technical university and was optimistic that the two institutions stood to benefit from the collaboration.