Tullow Ghana is sponsoring the education of 10 engineering students of the Ashesi University. The scholarship program which targets brilliant, but needy students covers tuition, accommodation, meals, health insurance and allowances throughout the four-year program of the beneficiary students.
This scholarship scheme forms part of the company’s initiative to promote capacity building in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. This initiative is outlined in its Socio-Economic Investment Strategy spanning 2016-2020.
According to the Social Performance and Public Affairs Manager at Tullow, Kwasi Amponsah Boateng, the partnership with Ashesi to develop STEM capacities is in line with government’s strategic objective to equip young Ghanaians to support the technical and industrial development of the country.
“STEM forms a core of what our company requires in terms of capacity. We are in alignment of government to boost capacity in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. STEM propels a country that is why we’ve picked it,” he explained during the launch of the Tullow Ashesi Scholarship launch in Accra.
On why Tullow chose Ashesi University for this partnership, Mr. Amponsah Boateng says, “We have a growing relationship with Ashesi; we consider it to be a Center of Excellence”.
He however, indicated that the program will be extended to the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology as well as the University of Ghana, Legon, once talks with these institutions are completed.
On her part, the Director of Admissions and Financial Aid at Ashesi University, Araba Botchway indicated that funding remains a major challenge in the university’s quest to deliver transformational education to young Ghanaians.
“The partnership with Tullow allows us to reach out to brilliant but needy students so we can support them. These are people who have a firsthand experience of what happens in their societies so if we give them that boost to become leaders and have that kind of knowledge that is required to change our societies then it would go a long way. So I think it’s really important for people to support us fund the education of these brilliant student from marginalized backgrounds”, she emphasized.
According to her, more than 900 out of the 1,200 applications received last year required financial assistance of which 500 were genuine cases. But the university was unable to grant admission to these students because of the funding gap.
The first batch of students to benefit from this scholarship program are, Kolah Tubare, Michael Ansah, Victor Haizel, Allnice Mensah, all first year Electrical Engineering Students and Nana Oye Gyan, a Mechanical Engineering Student.
The last batch of five student beneficiaries will be selected from the 2018-2019 applicants. Tullow will be spending about $7,800 every year on each student.
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM
