The conversion of the Wa Campus of the University for Development Studies into a fully-fledged university will attract development into the Upper West Region, Minister of State in charge of Tertiary Education, Prof Kwesi Yankah, has said.

Moving a motion for the conversion of the Wa campus of UDS into an autonomous university to be known as the University of Business and Integrated Development Studies in parliament on Tuesday, 16 July 2019, Prof Yankah noted that the Upper West Region has been one of the poorest regions in the country.

Therefore, with the establishment of a full university in that part of the country, businesses and other economic-related activities are going to be attracted to that area.

He also told Parliament that the university forms part of government policy to have one public university in all the regions of Ghana.

“This is in accordance with the government’s policy to have a publicly-funded university in each region of the country,” he said.

He added: “The faculty development studies, faculty of planning and management school of business and faculty of education; these programmes will form the nucleus of the new university.

“The upgrade of the Wa campus to a fully-fledged university was recommended because the Upper West Region is the poorest in the country. The region needs to be developed with resources.

“The Wa campus is also far from Tamale. The upgrade provides access to tertiary education for national development for people in the locality and to improve the lives of the people in the region.”