By Patrick Biddah
Over 500 prospective students, have rushed to apply to study in various health training institutions few minutes after the launch of a new online admissions portal.
The Health Minister, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, who launched the portal on Monday, May 5, 2025 , explained that it is to make accessing the portal more easier, but most, especially reducing the travel cost which was associated with the initial one.
With the old portal, candidates were to travel from wherever they were to any GCB or ADB bank to buy a code to access the portal.
But this one, which was launched, seem to have served its purpose already, with the large numbers that accessed it moments after it was officially launched .
The Over 500 applicants, who accessed the portal to apply to study in various health training institutions across the country, seems to have justified the new launch.
The Health Minister, Mintah Akandoh, who was thrilled by the immediate numbers, nevertheless advised prospective students to ensure that they qualify to be enrolled in their schools of choice before completing the process since the qualification criteria has been uploaded on the portal.
With this new portal, applicants will not have to pay monies at the banks before a code is generated for them to access the portal.
The difference with this relaunch version is that, It does not require buying codes from the banks to gain access.
Once you open the portal and complete the process, you can make online payment after which you will receive a code.
It also allows completing the process in phases. For example, if you could not complete the process at the time you started, you continue from where you left off another time.
With the relaunch of the new portal, prospective candidates, have between May 5, and June 5, 2025 to apply.
The launch, the Minister indicated, will bring to an end, the situation were monies are extorted from unsuspecting candidates with the promise of opening the portal for them after deadline is passed.
A call centre, he further added has been opened with the aim of assisting candidates, who may encounter any challenge.
In a related development, the Health Minister, who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Juabeso in the Western North region , also launch this year’s World Hand Washing Day.
It was under the theme:” It might be gloves, it’s always hand hygiene “,
The Government, indicated plans to support the local production of affordable hygiene products.
The goal is to help promote the use of these products to fight infections.