Ho Technical University to be renamed after Ephraim Amu

The Ho Technical University is set to become the next university to be renamed by the Akufo-Addo administration.

President Nana Akufo-Addo has expressed his eagerness to rename it after Ephraim Amu, the musicologist who notably composed, ‘Yɛn ara asaase ni’, the Akan version of Ghana’s national anthem.

The renaming was proposed by the University’s Governing Council and is currently before Parliament for approval.

If passed, the school will then be called Ephraim Amu Technical University.

Extolling the virtues of Ephraim Amu at the ongoing 50th-anniversary celebration of the Ho Technical University, President Akufo-Addo said his office would not hesitate to approve the name change.

“This decision is an excellent one, which has received the blessing of the President of the Republic, so that, once the Parliamentary process has been completed, this University will, thereafter, be called the Ephraim Amu Technical University, Ho.”

President Akufo-Addo earlier renamed the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT) to the George Grant University of Mines and Technology, after the first President of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC).

The Tarkwa-based tertiary institution was renamed on Friday, January 12, 2018, at a special congregation held at the school to install former President John Kufuor as its Chancellor.

The late Ephraim Amu, who hails from Peki in the Volta Region, has previously been honored with a space on one Ghana’s former currency notes.

He was also conferred with an honorary doctorate degree from the University of Ghana in 1965 for his services and contribution to Ghanaian music.

The Ephraim Amu Foundation was founded in 1995 and launched in 2004 in his honour.

Ephraim Amu is particularly known for his use of the bamboo flute; which he promoted and popularized nationwide.

Some of his famous compositions  are; Fare thee well, Mawɔ dɔ na Yesu, Nkwagye Dwom, Dwonto, Yetu Osa, Israel Hene, Onipa da wo ho so, Yaanom Abibirimma, Yen Ara Asase Ni, Adawura abo me and Samansuo

He died on January 2, 1995, aged 96.

By: King Nobert Akpabli/citinewsroom.com/Ghana