Legon signs $64 million deal

• Posted on June 29, 2015June 29, 2015
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

The University of Ghana (UG) has entered into a $64.4 million Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) agreement with Africa Integras for the construction of new academic facilities for four colleges at the university.

They are the College of Education, College of Basic and Applied Sciences, College of Humanities and College of Health Sciences as well as the Institute of Applied Science and Technology, an administration annex/extension and 1,000 student hostel beds on the Legon campus.

Africa Integras, an investment company and development consortium –  according to the terms of the agreement which was signed at UG’s main campus on Friday in Accra – is expected to raise long term finance of $64.4 million with maturity over a 25-year period for the projects. The company had benefited from the support of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation alongside some US publicly listed investors.

The construction process is expected to commence by September 2015 with a completion date slated for September 2017.

Giving a brief overview of the agreement, the vice chancellor of UG, Professor Ernest Aryeetey, disclosed that the deal was part of the university’s restructuring process which he said was aimed at bringing most of its academic activities across the country onto its main campus.

Prof. Aryeetey was optimistic that the deal would go a long way to enable the university realize its long-term goal of creating the right capacity to welcome more graduate and PhD students in Ghana and from across the continent by providing modern, world class teaching and research facilities. He called for a vigorous paradigm shift from the status quo in the management of the university’s properties.

Africa Integras managing partner, Andrea Christie Pizziconi, indicated that her outfit was committed to improving the educational sector in Africa.

According to her, there was the need for increasing access to education in Ghana and on the continent, saying “educational access is a human right.”

Ms. Christie Pizziconi told DAILY GUIDE in an interview on the sidelines of the short signing ceremony that aside UG, her outfit had also signed a similar agreement with universities in Kenya and some other African countries.

BY Melvin Tarlue