National Union of Ghana Students · 2026 / 2027

The Future
Agenda

Serving Students. Building the Future.

Mawuli Emmanuel Tsikata, candidate for National President, National Union of Ghana Students. Not louder promises: clearer plans, harder evidence and stronger accountability.

Explore the ten pillars See the tracker

Leadership with Purpose. Loyalty to Students. Service with Impact. Competence for Transformation.

Mawuli Emmanuel Tsikata, candidate for NUGS National President

5,400+

Schools in Ghana still operating under trees or unsafe structures

Classroom blocks committed under Beyond the Trees, across 3+ regions

35 → 100+

Target expansion of SEED institutions with NEIP

Policy pillars, each with published KPIs and a quarterly tracker

Foundational values

Four commitments that govern every decision

Leadership

Leadership with Purpose

Clear plans over louder promises. Every commitment in this manifesto is written to be checked, not just believed.

Loyalty

Loyalty to Students

A contract between this candidacy and every student NUGS represents, from the basic school under a tree to the postgraduate research lab.

Service

Service with Impact

Presence on campuses, in classrooms and at the negotiating table, translated into results students can see.

Competence

Competence for Transformation

Evidence-based advocacy, delivery frameworks, KPIs and quarterly public reporting on every pillar.

Meet the candidate

Mawuli Emmanuel Tsikata

Mawuli Emmanuel Tsikata served as SRC President of Spiritan University College, where student welfare, access to financing and campus governance have been the core of his work.

He currently reads for an MSc in International Relations. His journey runs from Anlo Senior High School and St. Mary's Boys' SHS through to postgraduate study, built on consistent student representation rather than a single campaign season.
As Chairperson of the NUGS International Relations Committee, he has represented Ghanaian students in continental and international student spaces, building the partnership relationships that Pillars 3 and 6 of The Future Agenda are designed to institutionalise.
He was part of the advocacy that delivered the No Guarantor Scheme for the Student Loan Trust Fund, a reform that removed one of the most persistent barriers between Ghanaian students and the financing of their education.

The full leadership record

The policy platform

Ten pillars. Every one measurable.

Open the full agenda

Basic & Special Education

Project Foundations

To build on the NUGS Basic School Infrastructure and Support Projects, accelerating real, measurable progress against Ghana's schools-under-trees crisis and strengthening NUGS's role as a national advocate and partner for inclusive basic and special education.

Second-Cycle Education

Free SHS & senior high delivery

To position NUGS as an active partner in the effective implementation of the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) policy, addressing overcrowding, infrastructure gaps and the transition pipeline from SHS into tertiary education and NUGS membership.

Tertiary Education Reform & Partnerships

Tracking desks & global links

To build permanent tracking desks for allowances, fees and financing across every NUGS bloc, and to open real international academic pathways for Ghanaian students.

Student Entrepreneurship & Economic Empowerment

SEED, SRC Cash & NUGS AID

To continue and significantly expand the Student Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development (SEED) Programme which NUGS co-created with the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (NEIP) in 2026, while deepening NUGS's wider student entrepreneurship ecosystem through agribusiness partnerships, SRC welfare revenue streams, digital platform collaborations and the NUGS AID Project, so that every Ghanaian student regardless of institution type or location has a real, accessible pathway from idea to enterprise.

Gross Sponsorship Package

Fair corporate support for every SRC

To establish a national Gross Sponsorship Package, a structured framework through which NUGS partners with corporate and development organisations to mobilise resources for SRCs that currently lack sponsorship and partnership programmes of their own.

Advocacy, Global Solidarity & Student Festivals

A predictable national calendar

To elevate NUGS's advocacy profile both nationally and continentally through a coordinated calendar of engagement platforms: an International Student Conference, a Leadership Summit, Regional Student Forums, and a National Students Festival, ensuring every student, regardless of region, has a platform to engage policy.

NUGS@65 Legacy Project

Beyond the Trees & the Hall of Leadership

To mark the 65th anniversary of NUGS in 2027 with a flagship, measurable infrastructure campaign: 'Beyond the Trees'. This administration commits to initiating or completing at least five classroom blocks in deprived communities across at least three regions by the end of this term, building toward full regional coverage ahead of the 65th anniversary celebrations in 2027. The anchor of this campaign is the adoption of the 56th NUGS Administration's model school building as the NUGS Model School design standard, replicating a proven blueprint, but with a deliberate STEM and robotics inclination: every 'Beyond the Trees' block is built not simply as a classroom, but as a foundational STEM learning space, ensuring the block carries both the institutional identity of NUGS as its builder and a head start on science, technology, engineering and mathematics for the children who will learn there.

Honouring NUGS at 65: A Legacy of Leadership

Legacy of leadership

To establish a permanent, institutionalised framework for recognising, documenting and celebrating the contributions of all past NUGS executives, anchored to the 65th anniversary in 2027, positioning this administration as a bridgebuilder between generations and a custodian of NUGS's 65-year institutional history.

Digital Transformation, Governance & Accountability

The Digital Hub & Manifesto Tracker

To modernise NUGS's internal operations and external communication through practical digital tools, and to embed transparent, measurable accountability mechanisms across every pillar of this manifesto.

Future Leaders Development Programme

Twelve modules, ten flagship initiatives

To cultivate a generation of ethical, innovative and transformational student leaders who drive Ghana's development and strengthen democratic governance, by equipping NUGS-affiliated student leaders with globally benchmarked leadership, governance and innovation skills, while embedding Ghanaian cultural values and national development priorities.

The NUGS@70 Development Agenda: Building the NUGS Village

NUGS Village

To adopt a 5-year (2027 to 2032) NUGS Development Agenda culminating in NUGS's 70th anniversary, anchored by the construction of a NUGS Village, comprising a National Conference and Congress Centre, affordable student hostels, and a commercial hotel, positioning NUGS as financially self-sufficient and as a practical demonstrator, not just an advocate, of fair student accommodation pricing.

NUGS@65 flagship · Pillar 7

Beyond the Trees

Five classroom blocks across at least three deprived regions, built on the 56th NUGS Administration's model school design, so that 65 years of NUGS is marked with something permanent for children still learning under trees.

Read the commitment

Voices of support

What student leaders are saying

When a NUGS presidential aspirant walks onto your campus during SRC Week, sits with your students, and listens to their concerns, that alone is a statement. But what gives us real confidence is that this manifesto backs that visit with concrete commitments: tracking our allowances, reforming the curriculum to reflect classroom realities, and helping us build international academic links.

Solomon Atsu Foli

SRC President, E.P. College of Education, Amedzofe (AMECO)

The commitment to ensuring that private university students have equal access to scholarships, loan support, and international partnerships is long overdue. This manifesto is the clearest signal yet that student leadership at the national level is ready to fight for us.

Kwaku Boakye Djan

SRC Vice President, Pentecost University

For too long, nursing and midwifery trainees have been locked out of GETFund scholarships and left to struggle with the rising cost of training. The commitment in this manifesto to challenge that exclusion and advocate directly to the GETFund Board on our behalf is exactly the kind of representation we have been waiting for.

Henry Kwashie Galley

SRC President, Keta Nursing and Midwifery Training College