Professor Bernard Kumi Boateng, from the University of mines and Technology (Umat), will deliver his Inaugural lecture on Thursday, June 15th in the UMaT Auditorium 2:30 pm.
His research area is the Mapping the Poor in Ghana: A Geospatial Multidimensional Poverty Index Approach.
Prof Bernard Kumi-Boateng is the youngest Professor by rank and the Dean of Planning and Quality Assurance at the University of Mines and Technology, Tarkwa, Ghana.
He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Geomatic Engineering from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana. He has double Master of Science degrees from the International Institute for Geo-information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), The Netherlands (MSc in Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation) and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana (MSc in Environmental Systems and Analysis).
In a record time of two years, he successfully submitted and defended his PhD thesis at the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT), Tarkwa, Ghana (PhD in Geomatic Engineering).
He recently graduated from the Pentecost University with a certificate in Theology and Pastoral Studies. Prof Kumi-Boateng is the first UMaT trained Professor and a highly gifted and inspirational youth coach, speaker, lay counsellor, mentor and academic who has touched and encouraged many young people with an impeccable integrity.
Due to his dedication to serve humanity and exceptional human relations among others, Prof Kumi-Boateng has received over 50 awards including the prestigious UMeX award for best lecturer in UMaT of which he has taken on 4 consecutive years.
Early Childhood Struggles
Prof Kumi-Boateng was born in Bantama, Kumasi on 15th June 1978 to Op Augustine Kofi Kumi (former Banker-to-Banker Lotto Agent in Tamale) and the late Madam Ama Owusuaa (then Pepper and Cassava Seller in Bantama). Growing up at BA 144, Bantama in Kumasi, Prof Kumi-Boateng had no hope of succeeding in this world. It was a distressing mental, emotional, and physical challenge as he had no knowledge of the location of his father (Op A. K. Kumi). His mother (Madam Ama Owusuaa) of blessed memory had to contend with raising 4 boys and 2 girls without her husband.
His siblings together with their mum were crowded in a single room at BA 144. The room became so congested that the seniors had to sleep in the open space at the mercy of mosquitoes. Madam Owusuaa became diabetic with stroke, total blindness and could no longer take care of her children. It was at this point that he and his siblings took life into their own hands on the streets of Bantama and he (Prof Kumi-Boateng) ended up with a certain man by name Thousand (in Banatama) for him to train him to become a toilet attendant at the age of 9.
Thousand (his master) taught him how to handle rush hours and be strong as a man and fight to survive. His master was kind and trusted him with the business to the extent that Prof Kumi-Boateng became his direct assistant in all the 4 toilets at Bantama.
During the period that he was a toilet attendant, Prof Kumi-Boateng managed to complete his primary and JSS education at St Anthony Primary/JSS, Bantama in 1993. After JSS in Bantama, Prof Kumi-Boateng joined one madam Obaa Yaa at Kumasi PZ to sell second hand shoes. She too was very kind and even took him as a son to stay with her. After some time of wandering about with no clear dream couple with all his siblings dropping out of school, K-Bobo (a cripple friend in Bantama) was used by God to instruct him to go and look for his father in Tamale. Prof Kumi-Boateng did without hesitation and finally met his father for the first time in his life at the age of 15 in 1993.
His father had no job and was a Banker-to-Banker lotto agent. His father could barely feed himself and thus had no plan of taking him to school. In Tamale, Prof Kumi-Boateng met Paul Napari of First Baptist Church and he introduced him to Pastor Joe Manu (he was then the Assistant Pastor at First Baptist Church, Tamale). Paul Napari visited to check on Prof Kumi-Boateng one night after Church service and found him sleeping in the compound of the house and immediately gave Prof Kumi-Boateng a place to sleep in his house as his father was living in a very small room in Tamale. Prof Kumi-Boateng started JSS again in Zogbeli Block A, Tamale, completed in 1995 and proceeded to Tamale Secondary School to read Science. In Tamale Secondary School he became the SU president and has since been a Christian. He obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in Geomatic Engineering from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (formerly KNUST School of Mines (UMaT), Tarkwa), Kumasi, Ghana in 2004.