The MTN Ghana Foundation has launched a nationwide essay competition to select 10 needy but brilliant students for a full tertiary education scholarship. This is in celebration of the company’s 10 million subscriber milestone and to acknowledge customers for their loyalty to the MTN brand. The MTN Ghana Foundation is the telecoms operator's corporate social responsibility implementing wing with several projects and activities in communities in which they operate. The winners of the essay competition will benefit from a hundred thousand Ghana cedis (GH¢100,000) financial aid to support their tertiary education. Speaking at the launch, the Executive Director of MTN Ghana Foundation, Mrs. Cynthia Lumor said MTN is committed to promote academic excellence and continue to make significant investments in personal growth and community development. She noted that the essay competition is to affirm the Foundation’s commitment to support education and improve essay writing skills among tertiary students. Mrs. Lumor indicated that the essay topic How to manage refuse in Ghana while motivating citizens to keep their environment clean will offer solutions to curb the growing canker in the society. The Executive Director added that applicants must be pre-tertiary students between the ages of 18 and 25 who have applied for admission into a tertiary institutions and can send their entries to any MTN branch or connect office nationwide. “The 10 million Subscriber Merit Award is unique and offers another opportunity for us to add to the number of MTN scholarship beneficiaries we have already” she said. Also at the launch was the President of the Ghana Association of Writers, Kwasi Gyan-Apenteng who commended MTN for the initiative. He bemoaned the falling standards of reading and writing in the country and feared the development could have serious implications for the nation’s manpower needs and capacity building. Mr. Gyan-Apenteng who is part of the panel of judges to review the essay entries pledged his commitment to do a conscientious assignment. On behalf of the other judges, he said “We welcome this nationwide essay competition and hope the students will do justice to the topic in order to select the best from the entries.” Mr. Gyan-Apenteng charged the media to see the essay competition as a national assignment and give it the needed publicity.