Accra, June 03, GNA – The MTN Ghana Foundation has launched the “Reloaded” edition of its “Bright Scholarship” programme to sponsor 300 brilliant but needy students through tertiary education for three years.
The enhanced package of the Reloaded edition will cover scholar’s tuition, accommodation, other expenses, and offer each beneficiary GHS1,150 stipend per semester as well as a laptop.
Mr Selorm Adadevoh, the Chief Executive Officer, MTN Ghana, said the reloaded version had more potential to shape the future and destiny of beneficiaries and serve as a key to Ghana’s economic prospects.
When the programme was initiated, he said the Foundation came across many female students at the verge of dropping out of school because their families could not pay their fees and for some, just because they were women.
Out of the 300 bright students supported for the 2020/21 edition, Mr Adadevoh said 119 had graduated out of which 81 attained First Class Degree honours and 24 with special awards, including Valedictorians.
Aside providing them with educational support, he said MTN also supported them after school and currently had 19 of the scholars pursuing their National Service with the telecom company.
The scholarship was open to all, he said, adding that special attention would, however, be given to those in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), Robotics, Coding, Technical and Vocational Education and Training.
Special focus would also be given to physical challenged persons interested in STEM courses.
Mr Adadevoh said MTN realised the need to equip more of the youth with technology and science considering the current global economy.
“Education is the most fundamental source of hope and guaranteed source for us to improve our lives,” he added.
Mr John Ntim Fordjour, the Deputy Minister of Education, who launched the programme, said the MTN Bright Scholarship reloaded was preparing a productive team of brilliant young people for a better Ghana tomorrow.
He expressed satisfaction at the transparent nature at which beneficiaries were selected and awarded the scholarships by the programme’s panelists who travelled the length and breadth of the country to assess applicants.
The Deputy Minister lauded MTN Ghana for contributing enormously towards the attainment of the SDGs, especially as Ghana envisioned to attain a 40 per cent threshold for tertiary education.
Speaking on the need to remove the barriers towards achieving the SDG on education, Mr Forjour called for more cross-sectorial collaboration to make it possible.
“That is why MTN’s intervention is bright and going to change lives and feed into Ghana’s socioeconomic development target,” he added.
Dr Paulina Boaduwaa Mensah of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology Hospital, who is a beneficiary of the programme, said the programme had played an integral part in her journey towards completing medical school.
“I am from low-resourced family and the first of six children. I struggled a lot in school, had to do menial jobs and sell second-hand clothing while in school to make it possible to learn but that was not enough.
“With the intervention of the MTN Ghana Bright Scholarship, my grades started coming up as I was able to concentrate on my studies,” she added.
GNA