By Isaac Arkoh
Mando (C/R), July 16, GNA – The Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) through its Foundation on Saturday handed over six fully furnished infrastructure to some schools and a community in the Central Region.
The structures include a 31-seater sanitary structure for girls at the Ghana National College in Cape Coast and a 12-unit sanitary structure with a borehole and people with disability enabler at Abor in the Ekumfi District.
Others are a 160-bed capacity girls’ dormitory with a 12-seater sanitary unit for Mando Senior High School and Technical School and a five-chamber Science Laboratory with an ICT centre capable of holding more than 500 students for Bisease SHS in the Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam (AEE) District.
Aside from that, the Foundation had since 2018 constructed six-unit classroom block each in 14 other schools such as Mosano SHS, Effutu SHS, Assin North SHS, Komenda SHS, Dunkwa SHS, and Abakrampa SHS.
The rest are Mankesim SHS, Swedru SHS, Gomoa German SHS, Assin Jakai Junior High School (JHS) Ankafo JHS, St. Peter’s Catholic JHS, Assin Nyankmasi JHS, Kuntenase Presby JHS.
The structures were put up upon request to the GNPC Foundation, the corporate social responsibility wing of the Corporation that seeks to improve the well-being of all people in the country.
Rounding up the commissioning tour at a ceremony at Mando, Dr Dominic Eduah, the Executive Director of the GNPC Foundation, said the Foundation’s operations were driven by three thematic areas of focus; environment and social amenities, education and training, and economic empowerment.
With that, the Foundation seeks to impact the quality of life of Ghanaians, believing that the delivery of quality education, and environmental tidiness was essential to ensuring that every Ghanaian, no matter their geographical location, benefited from the oil money.
He said education remained an important platform for national development, for which reason the foundation was investing in the sector to make it accessible to every Ghanaian child.
For that matter, he said the Foundation had offered 7,300 scholarships to Ghanaian students with 320 of them studying special courses in the fields of medicine among other courses that universities in Ghana were yet to show interest in with a commitment to return to their communities to practice.
Of the total, about 320 are postgraduate students whilst 200 are first-degree students studying special courses universities in Ghana had not shown interest.
Through the Foundation’s environmental tidiness drive, Dr Eduah said his outfit had constructed 800 water systems across the country, with 70 per cent in the northern part of the country.
Notwithstanding, the Region has benefited from six completed water systems projects at Ajumako Adu-Yaw, Assasan in AEE, Mangoase, Suro Dofo in the Gomoa East District, and Kafodzidzi in the Cape Coast Metropolis.
Going forward, Dr Eduah said under the GNPC Foundation’s livelihood empowerment programme, the Skilled Artisan Project (SAP) will graduate about 2,000 artisans having sponsored their training at the National Vocational Training Institute (NVTI) to acquire the certificate and craftsmanship.
Having undergone apprenticeship in various vocational skills such as plumbing, fashion design, carpentry, auto-mechanics, general electrical, hairdressing, interior designing and decoration, and aluminium fabrication, the beneficiary Artisans will be graduated in August and supported to start their businesses.
While pledging the GNPC’s commitment to supporting communities and institutions in dire need of infrastructure, Dr Eduah urged various facility managers and authorities to ensure that the structure was put to good use and encouraged parents to enrol their children in the school.
Reverend Ransford Nyarko, the Chief Executive for AEE, thanked the GNPC for the gesture and said it would go a long way to enhance education in the area.
He pledged to work with all relevant stakeholders to maintain the facility.
Ms Roseline Ayikor, the Headmistress of Mando SHS, said the facility would significantly ease accommodation challenges for students of the 2023/2024 academic year.
“It is going to grant access to many girls who otherwise would have to be day students to be in the boarding system,” she said.
GNA