Claim: KNUST Faculty of Social Science project was funded by the NPP government.
False. According to the University, the cutting of the sod for the project took place in 2016, months before the NPP government won power, and the funds for the project were generated internally and not from GETFund.
Full Text
A photo of the five-storey complex for the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology has gone viral on social media with users making various claims.
Some users have made posts praising the ruling New Patriotic Party for funding the project and crediting the government for the massive infrastructure. These can be found here, here, here, here, here, and here
Others, in claiming that the facility has an 11,100 student-seating capacity, announced it to be the “biggest university faculty block in Africa.”
In investigating the claim about whether the project was funded by the Nana Akufo-Addo led administration, DUBAWA first found out when the project started as well as the various sources of funding for the government’s educational infrastructure. Government’s educational infrastructure are largely funded through the GETFund, grants. There is also support from District Assemblies Common Fund and other government interventions.
In our research, DUBAWA relied on official information from the university. In 2020, the Chancellor of the University, His Royal Majesty, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, commissioned a number of projects on the KNUST campus.
Among these projects was the five-storey complex for the Faculty of Social Sciences.
A publication on the website of the university indicated that “this complex has 25 lecture halls, 100 offices, 2 computer laboratories, 500-meter square library space and a 1,200 seating-capacity auditorium.”
Concluding the publication, it was indicated that “funds for these projects [including others that had been commissioned] were generated internally.”
DUBAWA also came across a 2016 publication on the KNUST website headlined “Vice-Chancellor Cuts Sod For Structures Of The Faculty Of Social Science.”
The date on which the sod was cut for the commencement of the project was in July 2016, a few months before the coming into power of the New Patriotic Party-led government.
In the 2016 report, it was also indicated that “the structures are being funded from internally generated funds.”
The University’s Relations Officer, Dr. Daniel Bekoe, has also confirmed this.
In an interview, he said that the project was “fully funded from the [university’s] internally generated fund.”
Quizzed about the cost of the project, he said, “I can’t give you a definite figure but it will be a little above GHC 70 million.”
On whether or not the project is the biggest university faculty block in Africa, DUBAWA did not find adequate information to confirm or deny the claim.
When Dr. Bekoe was asked if the building can accommodate 11,100 students as claimed, he said that “it could comfortably” host about 6,000.
He added that the student population of the Faculty of Social Sciences could be used to determine the seating capacity.
Dr. Bekoe told DUBAWA that “the faculty alone has a population of over 11,000.”
Conclusion
While a chunk of the project was executed and commissioned during the tenure of the Akufo-Addo government, it would be false and inappropriate to give the entire credit to the NPP government. The project was funded through the University’s internally generated funds and not from government sources such as grants, GETFund or loans.
