The Business Development Minister, Dr Ibrahim Mohammed Awal has presented a 50KV standby generation plant to the Tamale Nursing and Midwifery Training College to complement the frequent supply of electricity to the health institution.
The Minister personally presented the plant to Principal of the School, Monday (28 December, 2020) in a day’s working visit to the northern region.
The plant cost an amount of 120, 000 Ghana Cedis.
Dr Ibrahim Awal recounted the predicament of the oldest training college in the north was brought to his attention during one of his periodic working visits to the region.
He noted the plant provided would end the unreliable electricity supply to the school. He added this would also improve upon teaching and learning.
“When I visited the school the last time, the immediate complain was lack of generator because the electricity here is not regular, it is erratic and sometime when they have exams the light goes off and they have to start all over again. So, this generator is to build the capacity of the school and enable them to write their exams at the right time and they would not face any interruptions” Alhaji Awal emphasized.
The multiple awards winning Minister said the nurse ratio to patients is woefully inadequate in the north and attributed the situation to the fact many of the trainees after graduation prefers working in the south and urban cities depriving the inhabitants of quality healthcare.
The Business Development Minister indicated the government of President Nana Akufo-Addo is so much committed to build the health status of the nation and stressed further that the provision of adequate healthcare for the people is very important to the President aside the flagship free senior high school policy.
However, Dr Ibrahim Awal urged management of the college to do more to improve adequate healthcare in the north and further promised to provide a brand new pickup for the college for effective monitoring of their activities.
For his part, the Principal of the Tamale Nursing and Midwifery Training College, Mr. Abdulai Abdul Malik, commended Dr Mohammed Awal for what he described an exceptional support to the institution.
He lamented how unstable power supply usually affected the conduct of their examination and underscored the importance of the plant.
“The Nursing and Midwifery Council Examination has gone online, it is no more a paper base examination and when you’re writing the exams, the council prefer the ICT is on a plant and not the national grid because with the national grid there are interruptions that are do not prompt even the VRA or NEDCo. However, with the plant, the electricity is stable to power the internet facilities and all that and it was one of the biggest problems we had” Mr. Abdulai explained.
The Principal of the Tamale Nursing and Midwifery Training College further appealed to government for a 100-bed capacity hostile and 3-classroom block to accommodate the increased number of trainees in the school.
He noted this would also improve effective teaching and learning in the college.
“Let’s not forget the first batch of free SHS students just came and the pass rate is very high so there is going to pressure in our next intake” he added.
