Ghana in Search of Regional Integration Agenda 174 businesses stand to benefit from enhanced knowledge of the integration ideals can be approached for sponsorship of some programmes. For instance, the various financial institutions such as the African Development Bank(ADB), the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development(EBID) and ECOBANK could be approached to fund some activities. For example, these financial institutions could be approached to sponsor the study tours. Again, multinational and transnational organisations could also be approached to finance some of the activities. Some of the activities such as the short courses and specialised courses could be self – financing as it could be offered as fee-paying courses. In any case foreign students pay fees to the university and so if the processes and procedures are made more encouraging, it could encourage more applicants and thus generate more fees. Civil Society Organisations working in areas of regional integration such as the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung(FES) could be approached to fund the dialogue and consultative meetings to brainstorm on the most effective ways of mainstreaming the principles of integration into the syllabi of educational institutions and perhaps, even the development of the curricula for some of the modules. Obtaining funding from these sources and others to be identified would mean presenting interesting proposals and realistic budgets clearly stating the benefits that would accrue to the sponsoring organisation. This means that educational institutions would have to invest time and some resources into the development of the proposals and their marketing. The disconnect between educational institutions and the organs of integration must be repaired to create synergies between academics and practitioners. The dynamic nature of regional integration which has been occasioned by accelerated globalisation requires a symbiotic relationship between the policy formulators and implementers so as to ensure that there is agreement in the approaches used in the implementation of formulated policy. Educational institutions are in no doubt, very useful to the regional integration efforts. However, they can only be useful if they play their various roles to assist in the facilitation of the integration agenda. Ghana has been a trailblaser in the sub-region for a number of things. As an ardent believer of the regional integration project, its educational institutions can help her set the pace by facilitating, publicising and popularising the process through education at various levels and in various fora.
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