Management of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) has commissioned the refurbished VALCO Hostel at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) on Thursday, 3rd March 2022.

The 31-bed residential facility was first opened in 1985 to help medical students get to KATH swiftly for emergencies and clinical education.

Mr. Kelvin Kwaku Yeboah, Acting Executive Director of the VALCO Trust Fund, said that the renovation cost approximately GHC1,500,000. He thus urged the Hostel's managers to ensure proper maintenance and keep the facility in good shape.

Professor Ellis Owusu-Dabo, the Pro Vice-Chancellor of KNUST, who commissioned the facility on behalf of the Vice-Chancellor, Professor (Mrs.) Rita Akosua Dickson, commended the Trust Fund's Administration for their generosity throughout the years. He emphasized the importance of investing in local medical education. According to the Pro Vice-Chancellor, the expansion will help the University to enroll more students and prevent students from leaving Ghana to pursue medical studies in other countries. "Rather than sending our people to China, Ukraine, Thailand, and other countries, where they struggle to meet the basic requirements to practice medicine in this country," he said, "We should have a model that ensures we have improved infrastructure and space to make medical education accessible."

Professor Owusu-Dabo recommended that the facilities should be maintained in a sustainable manner. "As a people, we have a problem with how we preserve our properties. We need to establish a maintenance culture so that we can maintain our infrastructure," he stated.

Professor Christian Agyare, Provost of the College of Health Sciences (CHS), praised the VALCO Trust Fund Administration for a good job done. He explained that the University had to cut its intake of students studying medicine and dentistry due to a lack of instructional and residential infrastructure. 'To help reduce the student-to-bed deficit, the VALCO Trust Fund came to our aid by refurbishing the VALCO medical hostel.' He appealed to other corporations and donors to help alleviate the College's housing concerns for clinical students and faculty. He further urged businesses and other individuals to partner with the College to build accommodation facilities to enable the College to admit more students.

Present at the ceremony were the Dean of the School of Medicine and Dentistry, Professor Daniel Ansong; the Hall Master of VALCO Hostel, Dr. Emmanuel Ameyaw; and some staff of KNUST and KATH.