What UG should aim for. The story of Ashesi University set up by young Ghanian millionaire

After living in the United States for two decades, Patrick Awuah, already a millionaire at 30, quit a highly lucrative job with tech giant Microsoft  and decided to go back to his native Ghana to set up the Ashesi University in the capital, Accra.

Students at Ashesi University

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The name of the liberal arts college means “beginnings” in Twi, the widely spoken language of the West African country. When the university opened in 2001 it had 30 students. Ten years later, it has nearly 500.

Awuah started by renting a building where he established an admissions office, a library, a computer lab, a classroom and a cafeteria. At the moment, Ashesi University has nine buildings. This growth was financed through a combination of philanthropy and tuition fees.

Patrick Awuah

“In this country, only 5 percent of college-age kids go to college. And there’s two problems with that number: one is it’s too small, but the second is that everyone who goes to college by definition is going to be running this country one day, the 5 percent — they’re going to be running the courts, they’re going to be designing roads and buildings and infrastructure, they’re going to be running the hospitals, the schools, the businesses,” Awuah told CNN in an interview.

“So when I look at universities I see Africa fast-forward 30 years. When this 20-year-old is now in his or her 50s, that person is going to be a leader. And so I felt that engaging how that leadership, that future leadership core, is educated could be catalytic.”

Teaching the poor

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