The Garden City University College (GCUC), one of the leading private university promoting the training of health professionals in the country, has picked up a special award at this year’s Zenith Global Health Awards for its contribution to the healthcare sector on the continent.
The event took place in faraway Victoria Island, Lagos in Nigeria and was the climax of this year’s global health summit organised by the Zenith Global Health.
Zenith Global Health was established in 2016 in the United Kingdom with the aim of fostering education, collaboration and shared learning amongst healthcare professionals globally.
Zenith Global Health Awards is a prestigious platform that recognises and celebrates Healthcare and Allied Healthcare Professionals who go beyond the call of duty to ensure delivery and foster quality care for patients globally.
Award
The award was in recognition of the contribution of the founder of the University, Mr Albert Acquah, and the GCUC contribution in training healthcare Professionals in the healthcare delivery system and their impact on the health sector in Ghana.
A citation that accompanied the award said the “‘Special Recognition’ Award has been acknowledged by many with the positive impact you are making which is globally appreciated.”
The event was the first time it was held in Africa to recognise the ground-breaking work by healthcare professionals within the African continent. GCUC
Mr Acquah, a certified professional accountant resident in the US, initially set up the Garden City University College as a ICT training centre in 2001 and in 2004, converted it into a university college offering programmes in business, health and allied sciences.
GCUC is the only private university in Ghana offering dental therapy. It also offers nursing, physician assistant, midwifery and medical laboratory technician programmes and it is affiliated to the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. The university college has graduated over 3,000 midwives and nurses.
As part of his visit to Nigeria, Mr Acquah established links with the University of Calabar (UNICAL) where the two institutions have pledged to collaborate on capacity building and training of Midwives.
He said that due to the strategic importance of the Midwifery profession, there was a need to share ideas and knowledge in order to further uplift the profession.
He explained that they had come to seek collaboration with UNICAL on the training of midwives, thereby expressing optimism that the collaboration would be sustained.
He was optimistic that the collaboration would open doors of opportunities for youth employment and skills acquisition in their respective countries.
President
Professor Edward Kwame Asante
Commenting on the award, the President of the GCUC, Professor Edward Kwame Asante said even though it was in recognition of the pioneering role of the founder in health professionals education, “it also attests to the impact GCUC is making in the training of quality health professionals for the country and the West-African sub-region.”