Fifty students in the Northern part of Ghana have received scholarship packages covering full tuition, accommodation and feeding from MTN-Ghana.

It includes two-visually impaired brilliant students from the Wesley College of Education, Kumasi in the Ashanti Region.

The initiative is in commemoration of the telecommunication giant’s 20^th anniversary celebration in the year 2016 where the company pledged to award 100 scholarships to students in public tertiary institutions each year for three years.

The award scheme under the name Bright Scholarship Awards commenced in the 2018/19 academic year to support brilliant but needy students across the country.

Corporate Services Executive of MTN, Sam Koranteng, explained that the MTN Ghana Foundation made the commitment to award 300 brilliant but needy students across the country scholarships to cater for the tuition fees, accommodation as well as stipends to help them purchase books and other essentials for their education.

“We brighten lives everywhere we go. We encourage them to take their education very seriously and every nation the human resource is the bedrock of socioeconomic development.

We trust that they will form the bedrock of our society to contribute their quota to the socioeconomic development of our society. This is the journey of brightening the life of the awardees we have given the scholarships today.”

Mr Koranteng made the presentation to the deserving students at a brief ceremony at the Faculty of Law in the Kwame Nkrumah University Science and Technology (KNUST) on Friday.

SCHOLARSHIP BENEFICIARIES

This year hundred (100) students from twenty-one (21) public tertiary institutions across the country have benefited from the scheme.

From the initial low 18 percent female participation in the application process, the numbers increased to 35 percent this year.

Okyere Nyarko Blessing, one of the female beneficiaries who is studying Bsc Biochemistry Student in the University of Development Studies, was advised by a friend to apply after seeing the advertisement on social media.

“We thank God, we owe the country our best and we promise them that we shall deliver. Now I don’t have the burden of when is the school fees coming and how I am going to pay.”

Mr Koranteng revealed that Persons with disabilities (PWDs), have also shown strong interest in the application process.

Two of the winners; Richard Antwi and Francis Manu, are visually impaired students of the Wesley College of Education in Kumasi.

Both Richard and Francis are second year students who have had to struggle with payment of both school fees and accommodation as they strive to achieve their goals to become teacher and lawyer.

Richard for instance wants to become a lawyer but will have to get through college of education first because he couldn’t afford the university commitments.

“I always found it difficult to pay my school fees and accommodation. Because I am a visually impaired, I found it difficult to associate with other seen colleagues. So this scholarship will get me some money to buy recorders and get a scanner for my laptop so I also benefit like our seen colleagues,” they happily explained.

Both added that, “Our aim is to come out with flying colours and also help others.”

Addressing participants at the event, Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei Mensah, commended MTN Ghana for the educational initiative.

He noted that in a few years’ time, stories would be replete about MTN for the opportunity it gave to persons who were brilliant but needy to attain higher education.

The Minister therefore charged the beneficiaries to use the opportunity offered them by MTN’s Bright Scholarship award to study hard and excel at the courses they were undertaking in school.

SCHOLARSHIP AWARD PANEL MEMBER

Member of the Bright Scholarship award panel, Dr Godwin Sabutey, noted the rigorous nature of the process that determined the hundred; fifty (50) each from Northern and Southern parts of the country.

The scheme received one thousand, nine hundred (1,900) persons from all the 16 regions of the country.

Dr Sabutey said lot of scrutiny was involved in arriving at the 184 applicants who were shortlisted. Out of which 100 have been awarded.

“we had to determine those who were really needy but brilliant from the shortlisted persons whose stories were similar of having nothing to rely on while they studied at the University.”

He commended other members whose diligence and commitment ensured they had a transparent process in the determination of the eventual beneficiaries.