The University of Cape Coast in collaboration with the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), has held a sod-cutting ceremony for the construction of a Law and Governance building complex for the University of Cape Coast. The building complex, worth five million US Dollars ($5,000,000), will be financed by the GNPC as part of its corporate social responsibility.

Addressing the gathering at the ceremony, the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Johnson Nyarko Boampong, expressed profound appreciation to GNPC for accepting to sponsor the project.

He indicated that the building complex will host offices of the Faculty of Law, the Institute for Oil and Gas Studies, and the Chair of the Petroleum Commerce Unit.

“We hope that when the building complex is completed, we will be able to continue training the needed human capital for the nation’s development,” he said.

The CEO of GNPC, Dr Kofi Koduah Sarpong, explained that the GNPC Board took the decision to commit to the project at UCC to promote research into petroleum commerce. He noted other reasons which were to strengthen the legal aspects of the petroleum commercial enterprise.

“Another reason is to put up this infrastructure so that the University will take advantage of developing professional Law Studies in Cape Coast.  We hope that once the Institute takes off, it will serve people living in the Western and Central Regions so that they do not have to necessarily travel to Accra for professional legal studies,” he said.

The Central Regional Minister, Hon. Justina Marigold Assan, also expressed her gratitude to GNPC for the support, saying that the project would in the long term benefit the Central Region and Ghana as a whole. She gave assurance that the Central Regional Coordinating Council will partner with UCC in development to help transform the Region.

Present at the ceremony was the Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Dora Francisca Edu-Buandoh; the Registrar, Mr Jeff Teye E. Onyame; the immediate Past Vice-Chancellor of UCC, Prof. Joseph Ampiah Ghartey; Provosts, Members of the Team that submitted the proposal for the construction of the building complex; Deans, Directors, Heads of Department, and Staff of GNPC.