RECTOR’S REPORT

Introduction

Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen. On behalf of the Board of Trustees, I wish to express my gratitude to you all for your presence here today at the maiden Congregation of the SALT Institute, Ghana.

 

Congregations are very important events in the life of a tertiary institution, as every congregation marks an important milestone. For SALT Institute, this maiden congregation ceremony is significant because it sets in motion our journey towards raising, training, and developing servant leaders for business and public life in Africa as well as the global marketplace. We are happy at SALT Institute to be part of the systematic enterprise of raising the next generation of transformational thinkers and servant leaders for the African continent. 

 

At today’s august ceremony, our mentor institution, the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), will confer degrees on fifteen deserving graduands from our two Master of Arts programmes in Leadership and Management, and International Relations and Diplomacy. On behalf of the Board of Trustees, Faculty, Staff and Management of the Institute, I wish to congratulate all our graduands for your remarkable achievement as the firstfruits of the vision of the SALT Institute.

 

Academic Programmes

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, SALT Institute is fully accredited by the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission as a private tertiary institution to offer degree programmes. We are currently being mentored by Ghana’s foremost public management training institution, GIMPA, and are also the local licensed affiliates of the Joseph Business School (JBS) in Chicago, USA.

 

Under these accreditation, affiliation and licensure arrangements, the Institute currently has the following programme offerings:

• Bachelor of Arts in Transformational Leadership
• Bachelor of Arts in International Relations
• Master of Arts in Leadership and Management
• Master of Arts in International Relations and Diplomacy
• Certificate in Business Management and Entrepreneurship (JBS, USA).

 

At present, the masters’ degree and certificate programmes are on full offer at the Institute, while the bachelor’s degree programmes are yet to commence. The Management of the Institute is making frantic efforts to obtain accreditation for additional cutting-edge postgraduate degree programmes, including:

• LLM Alternative Dispute Resolution
• LLM International Law & Diplomacy
• MA Information Communication Technology
• MBA Entrepreneurship and Innovation
• PhD International Relations & Diplomacy
• PhD Leadership & Management

 

Faculty, Staff and Students

The composition of the Institute’s teaching staff shows a tall order of practitioner-scholars pooled together from Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, South Africa, Benin Republic, Morocco, and the United States of America. The diversity of our teaching staff, all of whom are driven by a mindset for transformation in Africa, positions our study programmes within a global, multicultural perspective for the benefit of our students. I wish to specially appreciate our lecturers for bringing along your strong blend of real life leadership experience and sterling academic practice to bear in developing our students’ core competencies of integrity, stewardship, and leadership.

 

Our non-teaching staff team also consists of directors, librarians, IT support staffs, administrators, consultants, volunteers, and other auxiliary staff all of whom provide administrative and technical support services to the Institute at various times and in various capacities.

 

Within these two years of running the Institute, we have so far, by God’s grace, attracted students from Kenya, Angola, Benin Republic, Gabon, and our campus-resident country, Ghana. These students were enrolled into our two running master’s degree programmes. 

 

Leadership Development Initiatives

Mr. Chairman, as part of the Institute’s leadership development initiatives, we hold biweekly guest seminars where our students engage with policy-makers and industry-players on contemporary leadership issues. 

 

Some of the topics treated in our guest seminars so far include: Young Lives Matter: Raising a New Generation of Leaders for Africa; The Anti-LGBTQI+ Legislation in Ghana: Genesis, Evolution & Implications; Trends in ICT, Innovation and Digital Transformation in Africa; AfCFTA: Panacea to Africa’s Woes or Trojan Horse to Africa’s Underdevelopment; Effective Leadership in a Rapidly Changing World; The Christian Leader and His Character: Reflections on how to make a positive impact in church and society; The Quest for Transformational Leadership – Managing the Conflict Between Integrity and Money; Becoming a Transgenerational Thinker; Harnessing Diasporan Minds for Africa’s Development: The Leadership Factor; and Leadership Thoughts on Leaving a Lasting Legacy.

 

Additionally, the Institute holds quarterly and annual public lectures, which bring together Africa’s intelligentsia in relevant discourse on Africa’s transformation agenda. At last year’s annual public lecture for example, we hosted the President of the African Development Bank, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, who together with other discussants shared leadership perspectives on the theme, ‘Integrity, Leadership and Stewardship for National Transformation in Africa’.

 

The Institute also organizes leadership development workshops and colloquia, both of which were introduced this year. The workshops seek to utilize different strategic methodologies to imbibe leadership and stewardship etiquette into our students, while the colloquia serve as a platform for discussing pressing national and international issues such as the current Russia-Ukraine war.

 

Beginning from the next academic year, Management has put in arrangements for students to embark on internships at various organizations relevant to their study programme areas. Students will also be required to engage in volunteerism during our Integrity, Leadership and Stewardship (ILS) Community Service Week celebrations. 

 

Intentional Mentorship Programme

Mr. Chairman, students who are admitted to SALT Institute are assigned Mentors whose responsibility goes beyond the usual academic guidance or research supervision provided for in many universities. A student’s Mentor at SALT Institute has a role in supporting the student’s academic, spiritual, emotional, social, career, and leadership development. We believe that such holistic engagement between students and their Mentors is key to imbibing a redemptive ideology within our students whom we believe are transformational thinkers in training.

 

Short Courses and Consultancy Services

The Institute has established a unit responsible for running short courses and consultancy services. The first of such short courses took place in August 2021 for middle and senior level managers on the theme “Leading with Sense”. The unit is currently planning the launch of short courses in governance, strategic leadership, paralegal studies, entrepreneurship, educational administration, diplomacy and foreign relation studies.

 

Africa Diplomacy and Business Summit

As part of the Institute’s flagship programmes, the Institute is currently planning the launch of the maiden edition of an Africa Diplomacy and Business Summit. The Summit, which will be an annual event, will bring together the African diplomatic and business communities, higher educational institutions, and practitioner-scholars to engage in collaborative discourse on transforming the socioeconomic fortunes of the continent.

 

A Planning Committee, which has both local and international membership, is chaired by Ambassador Elizabeth Adjei, Ghana’s former ambassador to Spain, is spearheading the organization of the Summit. The first Summit is scheduled to take place in Accra in April 2023 on the theme, “Harnessing the diplomatic and business resources of the continent to hasten the Africa Continental Free Trade Area.”

 

Physical Infrastructure

Mr. Chairman, Distinguished Guests, the leadership of the Institute embarked on a major trajectory last year to relocate the Institute’s campus from its Dzorwulu location here in Accra to this current location here in New Achimota, Accra. This new campus has gone through the assessment procedures of the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) and obtained satisfactory remarks towards its accreditation. We express our appreciation to the Director General and staff of the GTEC for your immense support during our campus relocation. 

 

The Institute has a permanent campus under construction at Prampram here in the Greater Accra Region, which upon completion will be able to accommodate our growing admission numbers for both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.

 

A Bright Future Awaits Africa

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, at SALT Institute, we are driven by our firm resolve that the better years of the African continent lie ahead of us. Through this divinely-inspired project, as we believe SALT Institute to be, our hope lies in God who runs in the affairs of men that He will raise for Himself a people transformed into His likeness of justice, righteousness and power who through their knowledge enterprise and purity of character will serve God’s redemptive purposes across the continent.

 

We are confident that the coming academic year will be more fulfilling and impacting as the Lord’s grace enables us to achieve the vision and mission of the SALT Institute.

 

Thank you for your kind attention and may God bless us all.