Accra, June 17, GNA - The Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) was on Friday given an Accreditation to enable it to award its own Certificates, Diplomas and Degrees for its programmes. The National Accreditation Board (NAB) in Collaboration with the Ministry of Education presented the Certificate, also known as the Charter to GIMPA in accordance with Regulation 17(4) of Legislative Instrument (LI) 1700. This follows three years of successful quality control processes by the NAB into the programmes of the Institute, after which the Charter was signed by the President and Minister of Education mandating it to award its own certificates.

Professor John S. K. Ayim, Chairman of the National Accreditation Board (NAB), who presented the Charter, said GIMPA had for a long time expressed the desire to run post-graduate, graduate and diploma programmes but that had been difficult because it was not backed by law. He said with the Charter, GIMPA had been empowered to award its own degrees, diplomas and certificates in its area of competence to persons, who successfully completed courses of study at the Institute. Professor Ayim said the Charter made GIMPA an independent body adding, "GIMPA's independence will mean new change or ideas into management practice in Ghana."

Professor Stephen Adei, Director - General of GIMPA said the Presidential Charter to GIMPA marked an important milestone in the history of the Institute, adding that it would be mindful of the responsibility and ensure that its three fold areas of concentration, leadership, management and technology, which were strategic to national progress, had a major improvement. Professor Adei said GIMPA was a public tertiary institution with a unique status derived from the new GIMPA law, Act 676 2004, making it a corporate body under the office of the President and affiliated to the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE). He said GIMPA had since 2000 mounted three new programmes, which were Executive Masters in Business Administration, Executive Masters in Public Administration and Executive Masters in Governance and Leadership.

"Another remarkable new programme is the establishment of 10 specialized undergraduate degree programmes in Accounting, Business Administration Entrepreneurship, Management Marketing and Information Technology under the supervision of Schools of Business and Multimedia Studies to satisfy the demands of the public." Professor Adei gave the assurance that GIMPA would not de-emphasize its role as the institute charged specifically to train Civil Servants and Public Officers from the middle to the highest levels adding that it would endeavour to build for the Government the kind of Civil Service that would move the nation forward.