9 months ago
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The Evangelical Presbyterian (EP) Church, Ghana, has appealed to the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, to intervene in the impasse between the EP University College and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to save the college from imminent collapse.
According to the church, the University College was constrained in honouring its tax obligations due to a number of challenges it was going through and it would be grateful if the President could intervene on their behalf to forestall threats of closure by the GRA.
“Due to lack of cash flow, the University College is unable to regularly pay its tax component to the GRA in accordance with statutory requirements. As a result, GRA is threatening to shut down the administration of the University,” it said.
This came to light when the leadership of the church paid a courtesy call on President Akufo-Addo at the Jubilee House in Accra yesterday.
The visit, which was led by the Moderator of the Church, Rt. Reverend Dr (Lieutenant Colonel) Bliss Divine Agbeko Rtd, was also to plead with the President to assist the University to be granted a Presidential Charter to enable it become a fully-fledged university.
Accompanying the moderator were Clarke of General Assembly of the EP Church, Ghana, Rev. Dr Lawson Djanku, Presbyter and Senior Laity and Principal Executive of General Assembly, Charles Sitsofe Sakyi, the immediate past Vice Principal of Trinity Theological Seminary, Legon, and Senior Clergywoman of the Church, Rev. Professor Mrs Dorothy Akoto, the Chairman, Governing Council of the E.P University, Dr George Afeti, and the Director for Media Communication and Advocacy for the Church, MacDonald Bubuama.
Rev. Agbeko said it had become necessary to approach the President to seek his intervention because as the father of the nation, the church was confident that he had the powers to put in the right measures to save the university.
He explained that the university, since its establishment in 2007, had turned out a lot of responsible citizens who were serving in various levels of society, as such must be assisted in whatever ways to enable it perform its function of contributing to building the skilled manpower of the country.
On his part, the Chairman of Council of the University, Dr Afeti, explained that in its quest to expand the University’s infrastructure to accommodate the increasing number of students and broaden its scope of academic curricular, the church had encountered severe challenges, including difficulty in meeting its statutory requirements per the regulations of the National Accreditation Board (NAB) to charter this year.
“Besides, the church is finding it difficult to redeem the University’s indebtedness to the National Investment Bank (NIB) for a loan it contracted from the Bank,” he said.
President Akufo-Addo, on his part, assured the delegation of government’s commitment to helping the church and the university find amicable solutions to the challenges.
He said the indebtedness to the GRA should not constitute a basis for the closure of the university, stressing, “The work that you and the churches are doing are so important for the welfare and progress of our country, especially to the welfare of our population, so whatever, can be done to assist the church to be able to deliver on their mandate and their contribution…I think is the responsibility of government to see what can be done.”
BY CLIFF EKUFUL
