It was emotional at the law faculty auditorium of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) where MTN Ghana Ltd. Awarded full scholarships to a hundred extremely brilliant but deprived students under the company’s MTN Bright Scholarships Initiative.
These students twenty of whom are Persons With Disabilities have had to joggle studies with strenuous, discomforting and unusual hustles to find money to pay school fees and fend for themselves.
Despite these daunting challenges which drove some applicants to tears, they are pushing the odds and making the good grades in their various courses of study.
Rosina Fosuaa Acheampong, a level 300 student offering land Economy at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology narrated how she has had to sell and operate a mobile money joint to raise her school fees with nothing left to afford a place of accommodation on campus.
“life has not been easy. Last year I came to school without a place to sleep. After perching with friends for a while, I had to move out because their hostel managers were not happy,” she recounted.
Paulinus Nzo an orphan and a visually impaired student of the Wesley College of Education, expressed gratitude to the MTN Foundation for coming to his aid.
“I was facing a lot of financial constraints but this scholarship is a motivation for me to be determined to forge ahead for a better future,” he commended.
The beneficiaries are part of the final 200 lucky awardees selected for the 2024 MTN Bright Scholarships which saw over a thousand five hundred applicants present their cases before a rigorous and thorough interview panel.
MTN GHANA FOUNDATION
Addressing the awards ceremony, Senior Manager of MTN Ghana Foundation Robert Kuzo expressed worry that twenty to thirty percent of tertiary students who failed to complete their programs drop out as a result of financial difficulties.
He pointed out, “According to the Institute of Statistical Social and Economic Research ISSER; financial difficulty is one of the top reasons why tertiary students in Ghana drop out of schools. Up to 30% of students who fail to complete their programs cite financial constraints,” he cited.
Five hundred and twenty (520) students have benefitted from the MTN Bright Scholarships since it was initiated in the year 2018, to relieve the burden of brilliant but needy students
The scholarship covers full tuition, a stipend for academic expenses, accommodation and a laptop computer for each beneficiary.
Robert Kuzoe underscored the important role education plays in closing the poverty gap and implored other corporate bodies to draw inspiration from the Bright Scholarship Scheme, to support the teaming youth struggling to make it through institutions of higher learning.
“MTN Ghana Foundation continues to invest in education because we share in the believe that educating the people in the communities we operate in, can help close the poverty gap in our own country and also improve livelihoods and help accelerate our quest towards development.”
“In our rapidly evolving world, one of the most effective and sustainable ways to combat poverty is education. Education has the power to open doors and break down the barriers that keep people trapped in circles of poverty,” he added.
Congratulating the awardees, the Acting Commercial Manager of MTN Northern Business, Simon Amoh reiterated the key areas of education, health and economic empowerment that underpins MTN Ghana’s corporate social investments.
He insisted that the telecommunications giant is dedicated to improving livelihoods as it continues to introduce life transforming and impactful initiatives in line with the Sustainable Development Goals.
Government Remarks
In an address read on his behalf, the Ashanti Regional Minister Simon Osei Mensa commended MTN Ghana for its unwavering commitment towards investing in social intervention programs.
“MTN is not only demonstrating that it is a leader in telecommunications but also a champion of education, youth development and national progress. The challenges we face as a nation in education, healthcare and infrastructure, require collective effort and when the private sector joins with government, we can achieve great things for our country,” he noted.
Diversity and Inclusion
The selection of the 200 scholarship beneficiaries was underpinned by a fair representation of all universities across the sixteen regions of Ghana
The criteria for ensuring gender equity and social inclusion of the differently abled, further reflected MTN Ghana’s values of inclusivity and diversity
The students cut across various disciplines including the Sciences, ICT, Engineering, Mathematics, Computer Science, and the Humanities.
Apart from the interventions, the students will be kept on a program where counsellors will monitor and offer assistance to the students to help them concentrate on their studies while building a good career profile to transition into the real world of work.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM/Ivan Heathcote – Fumador
