The President's Speech
Address by Rev. Prof. E. Kingsley Larbi
President & CEO
His Excellency, the President of the Republic of Ghana;
Chancellor of Regent University College;
Honourable Minister of Education and other Ministers of State;
Chair and Members of the Regent University Council;
My Lord Spiritual;
Provost of KNUST College of Engineering;
Heads and friends from sister tertiary institutions;
The Clergy;
Honourable Members of Parliament present;
Faculty and Staff;
Nananom, Nii Me ke Naa me;
Graduands;
Students;
The Press;
Distinguished Invited Guests;
Ladies and Gentlemen:
The Change We Need
Nothing much happens without a vision, and for any great thing to happen, there must be a great vision or a great dream. The Bible says “where there is no vision, the masses lose the sense of direction, and therefore perish (Proverbs 29:18).
In terms of the availability of natural resources, only few continents can match Africa. In spite of this reality, the bulk of the world’s poorest nations, are found on the continent of Africa. The greatest challenge our continent is facing is not lack of adequate resources. Our greatest enemy has been lack of effective leadership in the exploitation and management of the resources that God has generously endowed on this great continent.
The collective challenge before us is to reinforce our human and institutional capabilities, so that all sectors, firms, and individuals can acquire, adapt, and use knowledge effectively, to enable us overcome poverty, disease, illiteracy, filth, which have become our collective disgrace. Towards the realisation of this vision, the need to strengthen our science, engineering and technology capacity cannot be overemphasised. In this regard our higher institutions of learning must play a leading role.
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, the Regent University College of Science and Technology, was established five years ago, as the first Ghanaian private university venturing into science and technology education. Our aim is to play a leading role in preparing graduates who will rise to the scientific and our developmental challenges. Our desire is therefore to build capacity for change. We think, the answers to our current developmental challenges are not beyond reach. We believe we have the God-given capacity to effect the necessary changes in our country. What is required is the right kind of leadership, the right kind of training, and the right kind of attitudes and practices.
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen: After barely five years of existence, having operated from four satellite campuses, we are now poised to introducing more programmes in the areas of science and engineering. Though relatively young, to the glory of God, we have distinguished ourselves in some critical areas. We do not believe in the so-called “business as usual.” Our core values include, Innovation, Speed, and Excellence! Because of our determined efforts and passion, we were able to start the first-ever postgraduate studies in computer science in this nation. Today, we will formally present certificates to two of our former teaching assistants who enrolled in this programme. Another achievement worthy of note, is our MBA programme which we are currently running in conjunction with the Maastricht School of Management, the Netherlands. As of now, so far as I am aware, this is the only MBA which is taught in this country, which has an accreditation from the prestigious Association of MBAs.