Gov’t to merge GIJ, NAFTI and GIL in order to obtain University license

Minister of State in charge of Tertiary Education, Professor Kwesi Yankah has hinted of the great benefit of consolidating Ghana Institute of Journalism, Ghana Institute of Languages and National Film and Television Institute (NAFTI) into one tertiary Institution.

According to Prof. Yankah, this is to better their chances of obtaining a university license as compared to them obtaining it as individual schools.

Speaking in an interview, Professor Yankah disclosed that even though two of the three schools have applied for University License separately, their chances of obtaining it as a consolidated institution are far greater than separately.

“Certainly it is one of the legislative instruments we are considering because GIJ applied to be a university separately and NAFTI also applied to be a university. ”

“Sitting back we realized that maybe none of them on its own has fully satisfied the requirement to be a university, but if you merge them, they can become various colleges or faculties within one university as it has been done in several parts of the world,” he said.

In November 2018, Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, mentioned that the government has initiated processes to merge three of the country’s public tertiary institutions, Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ), the National Film and Television Institute (NAFTI) and the Ghana Institute of Languages (GIL) into one.

The consolidated institutions would be known as the National Institute of Communication and Media Arts.

Mr. Ofori-Atta, presenting the 2019 budget statement in Parliament said,

“Mr. Speaker, processes have also commenced to merge the Ghana Institute of Languages, National Film and Television Institute (NAFTI) and Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) into the National Institute of Communication and Media Arts. In 2019, the necessary regulatory Bill will be put together with stakeholder consultations,” he said.

Mr. Ofori-Atta told Parliament that the move to merge the three institutions forms part of government’s commitment to expand tertiary education opportunities to meet increasing demand and the skill needs of the country.

Of the three institutions, only GIJ has been granted a Presidential Charter to award its own degrees, diplomas and certificates for programmes accredited by the National Accreditation Board, while NAFTI does so due to its affiliation with the University of Ghana.

credit: newsghana.com.gh