Tamale Technical University began as a Trades Training Centre (TTC) in 1951 and later became the Government T raining School in 1954, and in 1960 it was converted to a Junior Technical Institute. As part of the Educational Reform Programme, coupled with the enactment of the PNDC Law 321 in 1992, the status of the institution was raised to the level of a Polytechnic together with Accra, Kumasi, Ho, Cape Coast and Takoradi Polytechnics on August 23, 1992.
With the passing of the Technical University Act in 2014 by the Parliament of Ghana and assented by the President, the institution after satisfying the requirements specified in the act was upgraded to a Technical University in 2018. The University now trains students up to Bachelor of Technology level with the provisions to mount post graduate degree
programmes in future.
Since the inception of the University as a Trades Training Centre, its catchments area has been mainly the three traditional regions of the north, that is, Northern, Upper East and Upper West. In spite of the fact that there are now tertiary institutions in every region across the country, the student population of the University still has a reasonable representation of the traditional three regions and even beyond. This is an indication that the University continues to maintain a long-standing role as the premier training institution for middle and high levels technical and managerial personnel for the three regions of the north.