By Elsie Appiah-Osei
Accra, July 06, GNA- Speaker of Parliament Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin has assured the University of Business and Integrated Development Studies (UBIDS) of direct government support to fix its infrastructure deficits.
He has also endorsed the university’s bid to become one of the first institutions accredited to run the new Bar Practice Programme for law graduates.
Speaker Bagbin gave the assurance on Saturday while delivering the keynote address at the Second Congregation of the School of Law and the Special Graduation of the School of Graduate Studies at UBIDS in Wa.
Mr. David Sebastian Damoah, the Director, Media Relations, Parliamentary Service, made known the assurance in a statement issued to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), in Accra, on Monday.
It said, addressing the University Council, led by Professor Benjamin Kumbuor, Chairman; Professor Emmanuel Kunchebe, Vice-Chancellor; other professors, faculty, graduates and guests, the Speaker acknowledged the university’s pressing challenges.
It listed alleged inadequate teaching facilities, student accommodation, office space, research infrastructure, roads, recreational facilities, and uncompleted projects as areas needing urgent attention.
It also noted the need for a perimeter wall to protect the campus from encroachment.
“Government’s ongoing drive to complete stalled public tertiary education projects will improve the university’s physical infrastructure within the next two years,” it said.
The statement also welcomed the alleged recent announcement by the Minister for Education on the release of seed money for financially distressed public universities, saying it was “good news for UBIDS.”
Recalling the university’s history as a spin-off from the University for Development Studies (UDS), the statement said UBIDS had survived “largely through its own resilience” despite years of underfunding.
It expressed support for the UBIDS’ plans to establish new academic units, including Schools of Law, Medical Sciences, Tourism and Hospitality, and Property Sciences, as well as Faculties of Health Sciences, Agriculture and Food Processing, and Extraction Sciences.
On health training, the statement said, “Mr. Bagbin noted he had been working to upgrade the Upper West Regional Hospital to teaching hospital status.”
As part of that effort, it disclosed that six new dialysis machines had been installed at the facility this year with support from Members of Parliament from the region.
It also announced a partnership between UBIDS and the Medical University of Ajman in the United Arab Emirates to support the establishment of a medical school.
“I led a delegation, including the president of the Medical and Dental Council, Dr. Divine Ndondi Banyubala, and the Provost of the University of Ghana Medical School, to Ajman to sign a Memorandum of Understanding,” it said.
Speaking to graduating law students, the statement noted that Parliament passed the Legal Education Reform Act, 2026 (Act 1170) in April, ending the Ghana School of Law’s monopoly on professional legal training.
Under the new law, accredited universities can run a one-year Bar Practice Programme for LLB graduates, who will then sit for a standardised national bar examination before enrollment as lawyers.
“I understand the University Council is working to position the UBIDS School of Law as one of five institutions to be accredited, and I declare my support for UBIDS to become the leading law school in Northern Ghana,” Speaker Bagbin reportedly said.
According to the statement, the Speaker presented law books to the Faculty of Law and announced plans to meet the University’s Governing Council in his office later in July or early August to discuss further support.
Commending the UBIDS for its growth despite challenges, the statement urged the university to deepen its engagement in applied research, entrepreneurship, public policy analysis and community outreach, particularly on issues affecting northern Ghana.
To the graduates, it charged them to apply their training with “discipline, integrity, and service to their communities and the nation.”
It reaffirmed a commitment to a Ghana that is “peaceful, clean, prosperous, inclusive, innovative, free, and just” and wished the University continued growth.
GNA
Edited by Benjamin Mensah
Reporter: Elsie-Appiah Osei
Reporter’s email address: [email protected]