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Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, a Deputy Minister of Education has lauded the steady progress of the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR). He commended the Governing Council and the Management for the academic progress as well as the pace of infrastructural development of the University, stating that, it was a vibrant growing institution with student enrolment increasing from 150 to 760 within one year. Mr Ablakwa, who is the Deputy Minister in charge of Tertiary Education, was speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on Thursday in Sunyani, after a day�s working visit to the UENR. He described the efforts and achievements of the institution within the period as �a sign of blossoming and expanding University�. As part of the visit, the Deputy Minister, on behalf of the sector Minister, Professor Mrs Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang, addressed the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Mrs Esi Awuah, the Deans and Heads of Departments (HoDs), to ascertain the challenges and problems concerning the general progress of the University. Mr Ablakwa and his team of three officials from the Tertiary Education Directorate were then accompanied by the Vice-Chancellor, the Deans and HoDs, as well as other supporting staff of the University to the project site at the Nsoatre Campus of the University in the Sunyani-West District. He met the Chiefs and elders of the town to express government�s appreciation for the free allocation of more than 2000 acres of land for the project and disclosed that the Sunyani Campus would only be a Faculty eventually, because the Nsoatre site was designed to be the main and permanent campus. The Deputy Minister stated that �the University is a growth activator� because it would be the nucleus to expand and develop Nsoatre socially and economically, saying that, the benefit would not only be academic but the provision of enabling environment for the attraction and establishment of ancillary industries, businesses, commerce and trade. Prof. Mrs Awuah, assisted by Dr Osei Asibey, Director responsible for infrastructural projects of the University showed the proposed designs and drawings of the buildings for the site to the Chiefs and elders. She said all the drawings had been approved by the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE), and appealed to government to increase the University�s �Seed Money� of GHC10 Million to enable the University to undertake and complete the necessary developmental projects on schedule. Obrempong Professor Boakye Amoah Kromansa II, Paramount Chief of Nsoatre Traditional Area, in a speech delivered for him, assured that, besides the land allocation, the traditional authority was committed to offering any other assistance to make the development a reality. The Deputy Minister and the entourage then visited the Project Site at Dormaa-Ahenkro where the University�s Faculty of Agriculture would be located. He later also inspected some on-going projects at the Sunyani Campus of the University.