No Gain Without Some Pain, Says PhD Graduate

BY: .

Missing the birth of his second son, not being there for any of the child’s birthdays and taking out bank loans to survive were some of the sacrifices PhD graduate Dr Francis Tandoh had to make in order to fulfil his childhood dream.

‘In every endeavour if you don’t sacrifice you won’t succeed. The study took me away from family for a large chunk of the three years…it was difficult but highly possible because I had the will to succeed,’ said Tandoh.

Besides being a childhood dream, another motivation behind getting a PhD was his desire to gain academic excellence as he believes that a good academic needs the highest possible qualification in order to impart knowledge with courage and confidence.

‘Truly this qualification will give me the needed confidence and it has also provided the necessary tools for the kind of research needed to survive in leading academic institutions.’

Tandoh’s thesis titled: “The determinants of housing demand in Ghana: Evidence from micro-data” analysed the demand of housing in Ghana. ‘I looked at what determines the price of housing units, the determinants of the choice of tenure and the determinants of the demand for the quantity of housing units by households. Institutions affecting the demand for housing were also examined,’ said Tandoh.

He added that the desire to come out with a factual result to help in the formulation of good policy that will help solve the housing problems in Ghana was his driving force with the desire to fulfil his childhood dreams acting as the catalyst.

‘In fact, the results of my study show that generally the one size fits all housing policy would not be an appropriate one, since both income and price elasticity of demand for housing is not uniform for all income groups,’ he said.

He described his studying experience as “superb”.  ‘The ability to really understand a principle one might have learned at the undergraduate and masters level, the joy of contributing to the development of knowledge and the general discipline and humility it gives the student, mean it is more than worthwhile.’

Ghanaian-born Tandoh is married with two sons. His desire is to make an impact in his community and the world at large.

‘My belief in the Almighty God encourages me to seek frontiers without fear of failure.’

-          Sithembile Shabangu