The School of Business has launched its Development Fund in the Western Region to provide a solid financial-base to enable the School  deliver on its mandate.

The School of Business is mandated to provide high quality teaching, research and outreach in business and applied disciplines.

The establishment of the fund also dovetails into the vision of the School to be the best Business School in Africa. The fund, which was first launched in Accra in 2016, is expected to cover the School's infrastructural project, Student Support and Teaching and Research activities.

Against this backdrop, the School is embarking upon regional tours to solicit  funds from alumni, corporate bodies, public-spirited individuals, among others, to sustain the Fund.   The launch for the Ashanti Region will take place in June this year in Kumasi.

Launching the Development Fund, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Fund, Mr. Henry Baye, said the since the launch of the Fund in Accra, the Board of the Fund had come up with Development Investment policy, Fund Management policy, by- laws, among other prudent measures, to achieve the purpose of the Fund.

Mr. Henry Baye, who is also the Head of Retail Banking of Standard Chartered Bank, said in order to achieve its mission, it was incumbent on all past students to complement the efforts of the School. He added that alumni played pivotal role in the development of every academic institution and added that any institution that underestimated the instrumental role of its past students was bound to face problems. He, consequently, called on past students of the School across the globe to pool their resources to sustain the Fund.

Mr. Baye was optimistic that the Fund would help boost human resource development in the School, create conducive lecture theatres for teaching and learning and support needy but brilliant students through scholarship. He commended the Dean of the School, Prof. Edward Marfo-Yiadom, and his team for their relentless hard work.

" (…) One of the reports we received at the Board Meeting today was that Prof. Marfo-Yiadom led a team to undertake a tour of the three northern regions to visit alumni. He compiled a list of all the alumni visited in the regions, their phone numbers and emails", said Mr. Baye. He implored alumni to make conscious attempts to woo their friends who completed the School to come on board to support the initiative.

Presenting an exposition on the School of Business Development Fund, Prof. Edward Marfo-Yiadom, observed that for the School to attain its vision of becoming the best in Africa, there was the need for remarkable investment into the activities of the school. He noted that the time has come for the school to improve on its physical infrastructure, improve Information Technology facilities for teaching and learning and also employ competent faculty to handle courses at the school.

According to him, funds raised at the ceremony would be invested for a period and a percentage of the investment income, would be used to support various activities of the school. Prof. Marfo-Yiadom, who is also a member of the Board, explained that apart from the seed money, various sources of funding would be tapped to provide a sustainable capital base for the fund.

At the occasion, he walked the alumni through academic programmes that had been introduced by the School and encouraged them to come to the University to read the programmes in order to sharpen their skills and broaden their academic horizon.

The Provost of the College of Humanities and Legal Studies, Prof. Dora Edu-Buandoh, who chaired the launch, charged alumni to put their shoulders to the wheel to support the School to grow the Fund. She assured alumni that the Fund would be put to good use.

Branded School of Business coupons, with denominations ranging from GH ¢ 10 to GH ¢100, were distributed to interested alumni to solicit  funds on behalf of the School to support the good cause.