MTN Ghana Foundation today delivered millions of Ghana cedis worth for scholarship support to the first 100 beneficiaries of its Bright Scholarship Reloaded scheme.
The package, which comprised of tuition and accommodation fees, a laptop each, plus GHS1,150 each for every semester, forms part of a GHS20 million package earmarked to benefit 300 needy but brilliant students over the next three years, ending 2024.
This year, each of the beneficiaries got laptops because the focus of the scheme is on courses in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) as well as data analytics, robotics, ICT and computer science.
The beneficiaries were drawn from all public universities in the country – University of Ghana, Cape Coast University, University of Health and Allied Science (UHAS), University of Development Studies (UDS), University of Education, Winneba, as well as the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.
Board Member of the MTN Ghana Foundation, Dr. Gloria Asare said this year’s 100 were selected from over 1,600 very compelling applications coming from needy and brilliant students who are struggling to get through university.
The applicants were interviewed via a virtual medium, and according to Dr. Gloria Asare, even though the interviews were not in person, the stories were so touching and emotional that some board members ended up sending their own moneys via mobile money to support some students who were in dire need during the time of the interviews.
She said even though applications came from all 16 regions of the country, particular attention was given to applicants from the six new regions of Bono, Bono East, Ahafo, Oti, North-East, Western North and Savannah to ensure that the benefits are not limited to only regions which had benefitted in the past.
The Foundation of also gave some attention to physically challenged students, which saw at least three visually impaired person walking away with packages.
Dr. Asare noted that from previous scholarships that the Foundation has given, some 119 beneficiaries have graduated from various universities, out of which 82 obtained first-class honours, with 24 receiving special awards including valedictorians.
She said that underscored the importance of the scholarship schemes, given that a lot of those brilliant scholars could or would have lost the opportunity of tertiary education if not for MTN Ghana Foundation’s intervention.
Indeed, MTN Ghana Foundation does more than supporting brilliant but needy students to gain higher education. Over the years, the Foundation has invested a significant US$15 million into its three main areas of focus – Education, Health and Economic Empowerment, which has directly impacted over 4 million Ghanaians and impacted an additional one million indirectly.
One of such indirect beneficiaries was the mother of one of this year’s scholars, who said her GHS2,000 monthly salary as a teacher could not support her son’s university education, but MTN Ghana Foundation has saved the day for her.
The emotional mother, full of teary eyes mounted the podium and thanked MTN for making her son’s dream come true.
Dr. Gloria Asare reminded the beneficiaries that the support they have received from MTN is a vote of confidence in their capabilities, in spite of the peculiar challenges the face in their lives, adding that it therefore behoves them to take full advantage of it a justify why they got the scholarships in the first place.
Education Portfolio Advisor for MTN Ghana Foundation, George K. Frimpong explains the details of this year’s Bright Scholarship.
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