N/R: Cuban Ambassador pays a familiarization visit to TaTU

The Cuban Ambassador to Ghana, Her Excellency(HE) Mrs Chao Garcia paid a familiarization and working visit to Tamale Technical University (TaTU) on Monday, 17th January 2022.

The Ambassador was hosted by the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Abass Braimah, who had in his team, the Pro Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Bashiru Imoro Ibn Saeed and the Director of Public Affairs of the University, Mr Osman Mubarik Abu.

The Vice-Chancellor welcomed the Ambassador and expressed his appreciation to her for choosing TaTU as one of the institutions to visit in the region.

He gave a brief history of the University and enumerated some of the key academic programmes which are being offered in the University.

Prof. Abass indicated that TaTU’s focus area is Agricultural Engineering with special attention given to the provision of appropriate technologies to help improve agriculture in the country.

He added that the University is also currently positioned to grow in the Physical and Natural Sciences as more Bachelor of Technology programmes are being rolled out and called on the Cuban Government to support the University in this direction.

To this end, the Vice-Chancellor intimated that TaTU and the University for Development Studies (UDS) are the two leading public Universities that provide major tertiary educational programmes to the people in the five Regions of the North.

In addition, the Vice-Chancellor mentioned to the Ambassador the fact that the University's hospital is at the status of a primary hospital and that it was the biggest health facility in the Sagnarigu Municipality.

He added that the hospital currently provides health care services to not only staff and students of the University but the entire Education Ridge enclave and its surrounding communities are turning up for healthcare.

He however cited lack of adequate health professionals especially clinical officers to manage various aspects of the hospital as a challenge.

Prof. Abass Braimah concluded by expressing his gratitude to the Ambassador for the visit and reiterated his previous request to the Cuban Embassy in Ghana to post some of their medical team to support the management of the University’s hospital.

On her part, Ambassador Chao Garcia thanked the University particularly, the Vice-Chancellor for accepting to host her in his office. She expressed the Cuban Government’s readiness to open its doors for further collaborations and partnerships especially in the areas of tropical agriculture, students and medical exchanges.

She said the University of Havana and some other Universities in Cuba are specifically specialized in Agricultural Engineering and would be glad to collaborate and partner with TaTU for mutual benefits.

Her Excellency, Chao Garcio, also indicated that, in March, TaTU hospital would be part of the Institutions that would be recommended for the release of three(3) specialized medical officers to support in the delivery of quality health care services.

She expressed her optimism that the Cuban Embassy would initiate more collaborations with TaTU.

Dr. Hafiz Adam Taher, the Director of External Health Coordination at the Ministry of Health thanked the University for not just hosting the team but also supporting their visit to the region with a means of transport for their movements within the region.

He said there was the need for the University to urgently arrange to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Health to prevent any future bottlenecks in the release of those medical brigades scheduled to arrive in Ghana in March.

He voluntarily offered to support the University to swiftly sign the MoU as soon as their team returns to Accra.

The team later visited the University's hospital to interact with the clinical and other staff. The hospital Director, Dr. Atuguba, revealed that the hospital handles medical cases coming from the surrounding communities and records averagely one thousand (1,000) patients every month.

He informed the delegation of plans to commence Public Health Services in the course of the year 2022.