Arizona State University has announced a $22 million grant over six years from the MasterCard Foundation in support of an initiative aimed at equipping the next generation of business and engineering leaders in Ghana with the skills needed to solve problems and shape the West African nation's future.

The grant will support ASU's Strengthening Institutional Linkages program, a partnership between ASU and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana, that aims to award a hundred and fifty MasterCard Foundation Scholars with advanced degrees in fields that are critical to the success of the economy in Ghana, the world's leading source of cocoa and a major producer of oil, gas, gold, and diamonds. The program initially will be focused on mechanical engineering, biomedical engineering, and global logistics and supply chain management, with a focus on addressing skills gaps in Ghana as its economy grows. Starting in January 2017, the partnership also will also bring forty-two faculty members from Kwame Nkrumah to ASU to help support the MasterCard Scholars and create opportunities for broader exchange and joint research. ASU already supports a hundred and twenty undergraduate students from other African nations through the program.

"We are committed to educating master learners who will not just fill jobs in the workforce of the future but lead it, in Arizona and around the world," said ASU president Michael M. Crow. "The partnership with KNUST strengthens our global reach, grows our capacity to deliver quality higher education and creates enormous possibilities for both universities as we learn from each other."