The family of Ghana’s former Vice President, the late Dr. Paa Kwesi Amissah Arthur has instituted a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) award at the Economics Department of the University of Ghana in honor of the former statesman.
Making the announcement at the first K.B. Amissah-Arthur Economic Forum on Friday to mark the first anniversary of his demise, the family said it will fully fund the award scheme.
[contextly_sidebar id=”a1ME7S0x7TfRezCBFR0cR00mb4TkLe7M”]Kwesi Nyan Amissah-Arthur, son of the ex-veep who made this known said, the family was optimistic that this will become one of the many ways to find a more pragmatic approach to solving the country’s socio-economic challenges.
“Our family has work hard to design something that will encapsulate the need to find practical solutions to some of the country’s problems and the passions that our father felt. After much thoughts and discussions and at times heated debates, we have decided on two things. Firstly, we will like to institute a yearly PHD award at the Economics Department at the University of Ghana. We will like to send this a deserving high caliber student. This award has already been fully funded by the family in perpetuity. We have invested a certain amount of money and the proceeds of that money will go into the fund award every year with the proceeds matching inflation.”
Chair of Economics
The family has also hinted of plans to establish a Chair of Economics also aimed shaping national policy in the years to come.
“I am also pleased to announce that the family is at an advanced stage of exploration with the Department of Economics for the potential to perpetually endow a chair of Economics at the University of Ghana. This idea has received incredible support and we pleased to say that we have received very positive pledges towards our target of US$ 1 million. The intention of the family is that this chair will solve some great problems in dealing with some lessons our father was passionate about.”
“This is all pending the necessary university of Ghana regulatory procedures. Franking a chair of perpetuity means that the University of Ghana’s Department of Economics will be able to attract and maintain tough talent of professorial rank to give the occupant of that chair the ability to work towards finding practical and applicable solutions. Our father’s belief in faith and the powers of technical intelligentsia is one of the reasons we feel that this is one of the endeavors he would have supported. It is our fervent that the legacy of mind and heart he left in those of us who he raised and touched, can be nurtured in those who will win the PhD award and those who will occupy this chair”, he added.
Dr. Amissah-Arthur was a senior lecturer at the Economics Department of the University of Ghana before becoming Vice-President under the John Mahama administration from 2012 to 2016.
The forum also to celebrate the achievements of the former statesman and tout his credentials in finance and economics towards the country’s development.
Mr. Amissah-Arthur died in 2018 at 67 after he collapsed at the Airforce Gym in Accra during a workout session.