KNUST Alumni set to establish $5m endowment fund

As part of activities to mark the 70th Anniversary of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, the Alumni have initiated steps to raise Five Million Dollars as seed capital for an Alumni Endowment Fund to support the management of the school in the areas of scholarships for bright and needy students, futuristic and Environmentally friendly Infrastructural development and research and re-tooling of learning facilities.

As part of the anniversary celebrations, an Energizer event was organised by the Alumni on Tuesday 28th December to create awareness and stir up interest towards on the upcoming launch of the KNUST Alumni Endowment Fund (KAEF). The ENERGIZER event was attended by KNUST Alumni from various industries worldwide, as there was the opportunity for Alumni outside the country to join the program online via the world wide web.

Ing. Kwabena Agyei Agyepong, chairman of the committee in charge of the fund-raising drive and planning for the launch of the Endowment Fund, said in his keynote address at the KAEF Energizer Event that, “all major universities around the world have benefited from endowment funds through the support of their alumni hence the need to work closely with the university administration to build a more resilient sustainable future for the young ones in school”.

“As alumni, we’ve been supporting needy students, but we now want to expand this effort to cover a well-structured scholarship scheme, building futuristic environmentally friendly infrastructure, and to support research work and the retooling of learning facilities.

The fund-raising program dubbed @70 has been designed to enable all Alumni worldwide to participate by donating multiples of 70 GHS, Euros, GBP, or USD into the fund through the various payment platforms that have been created. Additionally, distinguished and high net worth Alumni are being identified and encouraged to donate generously towards the fund. Key institutions that benefit significantly from the human resource produced by the university are also encouraged to support the fund.

Some of the activities lined up as part of the Anniversary celebrations include mentorship sessions for students to meet and learn from Captains of industries, impact at your doorstep which encourages alumni all over the world to come together in their usual social groups to have some fun and undertake some social impact activities, and the launch of the KNUST Alumni Endowment Fund (KAEF), but to mention a few.

The Public Relations Officer of KNUST, Dr. Daniel Norris Bekoe, who represented the VC, in his address indicated that, prominent amongst the challenges faced by the university is the lack of hostel accommodation on campus. This means the larger student population lived outside campus in overpriced hostels which costs the school additional funds to cater for the security of these students. The university is therefore inviting the Alumni to organise its entrepreneurial members in the real estate industry to come and build hostels on campus, on a Build, Operate and Transfer basis. According to him, the university is ready to make land available to Alumni who want to invest in the building of hostel facilities on campus to help create a congenial environment for students to study.

He bemoaned the high number of students who risk lodging outside the school every year due to the increased numbers in enrolment with no matching accommodation facilities to absorb them. The situation he believes will be solved if more hostels are built and owned by Alumni at rates affordable to students.

It is worthy of note, that since its establishment in 1951 by Ghana’s first president, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, KNUST has since produced very notable Alumni in the world. The university’s total population currently stands at 80,000 students and about 5,000 teaching and non-teaching staff, and this continues to grow positively.

The night's event ended with some members of the Alumni pledging their initial contribution to the fund and also sharing some fond memories of their time on campus. Alumni worldwide were encouraged to start their donations towards the fund now.