Eighty-one (81) students have graduated from Heritage Christian College (HCC), in Amasaman-Accra, a university accredited by Ghana Tertiary Education Commission and affiliated to Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).
They pursued various degree programmes such as Bachelor of Business Administration (options in Accounting, Human Resource, Marketing, Business Information Technology Management, and Banking and Finance). This is the 3rd graduation ceremony of HCC since it was accredited to run Bachelor’s degree programmes in 2015. The Class of 2021 is made of 56 males and 25 females. By nationality, 79 are Ghanaians and 2 are Nigerians.
The President of the university, Dr. Samuel Twumasi-Ankrah, in his address to the graduands, said, “I have reached the conclusion that in a time like this when youth unemployment and poverty have reached overwhelming levels in our society like never before; in a time when morals are relative and discipline or accountability is considered judgmental, one particular attribute that every young person needs beyond having an academic degree, in order to be successful in life/career, is the four-letter word G-R-I-T. Today’s graduate who wants to be successful in his/her career will face extreme hardship, therefore needs grit; today’s graduate who will be successful in his/her career will encounter lots of disappointments and so needs grit; today’s graduate who wants to be successful in his/her career will experience failures, hence needs grit.”
The Guest Speaker at the ceremony was Prof. Kwame Adom-Frimpong, the Chairman of the Public Interest Accountability Committee and Immediate Past President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ghana. Speaking on the theme, “Rising up to the Challenge: Excelling with Integrity in the Job Market,” he encouraged the graduates to lead ethical lives as they go into a corrupt workplace.
The Overall Best Graduating Student Award went to Jeremiah Naado Niyekinye who also won the Best Theology Student Award. He received a laptop and plaques as his prize. Other Best Graduating Students in the departments are: Doreen Yaa Frimpong (Accounting); Dennis Abbey (Marketing); Ruth Nketiah (Human Resource); Andraos R. Jimoh (Information Technology); Bless Odjao Tettey (Banking and Finance); Fidelis Bayor (Business Information Technology Management). A former lecturer of the university, Mrs. Theresa Amuasi, was honoured for her service to the university.
Heritage Christian College focuses on training students to be entrepreneurial. As part of the graduation ceremony, three (3) teams of student entrepreneurs were awarded a total of GHC90,000 to start their own businesses after emerging winners of the 2021 HCC Start-up Challenge, an annual contest at the university that grooms student entrepreneurs and sets them up with a start-up capital. The teams are: Mozola Transport Services (GHC35,000); Eden Beverages Enterprise (GHc30,000); and Venus Baby Nest (GHC25,000).
At a global event this year-The 2021 Folwer Global Social Innovation Challenge held in the US- HCC students (NEtPharma) competed with several other universities across the globe to be among the Top 24 finalists. They were the only group from Ghana (2 groups from Ashesi and 1 group from UPSA participated) to progress to the next level of the competition.
As part of the Day of Philanthropy, the university’s students, staff and faculty raised an amount of GHC20,000 for charity. An amount of GHC10,000 will be donated to the Ghana Heart Foundation while GHC10.000 was shared as tuition scholarships for 4 brilliant but needy students of the university.
The first Executives of the HCC Alumni Association were inducted into office with Mr. Francis Brown as the President.