Students of Accra Polytechnic are kicking against authorities' decision to build a shopping mall on campus.

The construction of a two-million Ghana Cedi shopping mall, according to the students, is a misplaced priority, given they do not have enough lecture halls for academic purposes. Meanwhile, the authorities have defended the decision and said it would help the polytechnic raise funds to support other development projects.

The head of Public Relations, Fausta Ganaa, told Starr News in an interview the “leadership has got a very good reason for that venture of constructing a shopping mall”.

“There are very good reasons. One, it is an IGF project, that is, it will give the school some kind of internally generated income. So that it would be used to run other ventures in the school to provide other teaching and learning facilities”.

She also stated they are surprised over the reaction of the students.

“The project has been on the drawing board for a long time, even before this current administration. It’s in the strategic plan and all processes have been followed from academic board, to development committee to council. Now it is just the implementation stage.

“We have had dialogue with a number of student leaders to explain to them, but still they have issues with that. They may not see. They may not see the immediate benefits now, but tomorrow they will see it when we start using the funds for the other areas of teaching and learning,” Ganaa added.