President John Mahama has urged the next government led by Nana Akufo-Addo to make it a priority to sustain the initiatives which the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government has started.

According to the outgoing President, that is the best way to ensure national development.

The president made this appeal when he broke ground for the start of construction of the first public university in the Eastern Region, Thursday.

The Mahama-led administration promised to establish a public university in the region as part of efforts to expand tertiary education in the country.

The university will have its main campus in Somanya, in the Yilo Krobo district, and will cover a 300-acre land. It will also have state-of-the-art facilities for three undergraduate programmes and one postgraduate programme.

The construction of the university was scheduled to take off two years ago but the delay has been attributed to disputes over efforts to acquire a land build the facility.

However, at a colourful ceremony in Trom, a community in Somanya, President Mahama joined the chiefs and residents of Somanya to break grounds for the constructing the university.

The acting President of the Yilo Krobo Traditional Council, Nene Tetteh Odonkor, appreciated the decision by the government to give a boost to education in the area.

He pledged his commitment to ensuring the construction of the university first tertiary school in the area.

President Mahama and some ministers of state planted a tree to signify the takeoff.

According to the president, funding has been acquired for the construction of the university and had been approved by Parliament.

Meanwhile, the traditional authorities in the area have decorated the President with beads and given the title ‘Promise Fulfilling President’.