From left to right, Gyano Charty Joseph(21yrs), BSC Telecommunication Engineering 2024, Sylvester Selase Agorbortu (22years) BSC Telecommunication Engineering, Derrick Mawusi (25years), BSC Chemical Engineering and Emmanuel Yuorkuu, BSC Chemical Engineering (24yrs)
MTN Bright Scholarships; A Life Impacting Educational Initiative For The Needy! Ahoooo!
Background:
MTN Ghana in 2018 through its Foundation established a scholarship initiative to provide financial assistance to primarily needy but brilliant students in public tertiary institutions.
This initiative by the telecommunication giant, makes provision of funds for tuition, accommodation, stipend for every semester and the provision of a lapt to to enable beneficiaries to attend to their programmes of choice.
The Foundation, has since the launch of the scheme, provided scholarship packages to needy students across the country.
Popularly known as the MTN Bright scholarship, the Foundation has so far given over 1, 000 scholarships to qualified persons who have applied and succeeded since its establishment.
Evans Aryeh (23) – BSC Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Impact:
This initiative by the Foundation, has culminated in churning out exciting and life changing experiences for many who had previously lost hope of securing funds to pursue their dreams of having university education.
Interestingly, many beneficiaries who have shared testimonials about the scholarship package, in unison, speak that but for same they would not have had the opportunity to access tertiary education.
Furthermore, others who secured same at second years or third years also share memories of having torrid times trying to keep up in school but for the securing of the MTN corporate social responsibility gesture.
So far, many of the awardees have graduated tops of their classes since such is the condition of being selected as beneficiary.
Educational System:
Currently, attempting to access tertiary education in Ghana is quite expensive and for the ordinary Ghanaian and those coming from poor homes it is a constant struggle.
Such was the condition of five students who recently graduated during the 58th graduation ceremony of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi.
Testimonials From 5 KNUST Graduates:
23 year old Joseph Charty from Oti region who graduated with a First Class Honours in Bachelor of Science in Telecommunication Engineering, stated that but for the support from the company, he would not have been able to complete his university education.
“The scholarship has been instrumental in helping me to achieve my educational goals,” he said.
With the scholarship, he said he did not have to think about where to get money to foot his bills and devoted all his attention to his studies, enabling him to come with flying colours.
Having lost his father at a tender age, he said it was his elder brother who was taking care of his education and things were not rosy for him and the scholarship was the answered prayer for the family and that really eased the pressure on his brother.
He was therefore grateful to MTN Foundation for introducing the scholarship which he described as a game changer for him, “without the scholarship, many would have been left out without the opportunity of tertiary education.”
Sylvester Selase Agorbortu, a native from Kpando who also read BSc Telecommunication Engineering and also a beneficiary of the scholarship scheme.
At the time of his admission, he said he had three other siblings out of the parents’ 12 children offering university education.
“Things were tough for the family and the future looked bleak and I had to start looking for scholarship opportunities and being selected by MTN was the turning point for me,” he said.
In addition to paying for their tuition, accommodation and stipends, the beneficiaries were also donated a laptop for their studies.
Third beneficiary, Emmanuel Yuorkuu, a native of Nandom from the Upper West Region, after completing his secondary school education in 2019, he had to stay home to do some menial work to save money to enable him to buy his admission form and his first-year expenses at the university.
Through his savings and family support, Yuorkuu managed to pay for his fees for the first and in the second year, won a scholarship that only paid for his tuition fees for the second and third years.
He said because the scholarship only paid his tuition fees, he had to stay back on campus during the long vacation to work and earn some money to cater for his other expenses on campus and as a result he could not go on industrial attachment.
Luckily for him, he was told about the MTN Bright Scholarship in his third year and applied for it and luckily for him, he got it.
Through the assistance of MTN, Yuorkuu was able to do his industrial attachment during the long vacation in his third year and was able to concentrate on his studies and graduated with a Cumulative Weighted Average of 82.18 and a First Class Honours of Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering.
Derrick Mawuse who also graduated with a First Class in Chemical Engineering, narratwd that he had to sell firewood and fry gari for sale during the long vac to be able to raise the needed funds to finance his education “and this was not easy.”
For him, the scholarship was a dream come true for him and was a great reliever. For him, aside from the payment of fees and hostel accommodation, the company also pays its awardees stipends and provides them with laptops.
That, according to him, “makes MTN Bright Scholarship one of the best.”
Emerging as the best student from the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Evans Aryeh, stressed that aside the goodies that the scholarship provides, it also exposes them to mentors who guide them in their careers.
He urged the company to expand the scheme to enable more people to benefit from it and enable them to achieve their dreams.
At the time of applying for the scholarship, he said the sister had fallen sick and all the family’s attention and resources were towards her treatment and winning the scholarship was one person less for the family to worry about.
All the awardees were grateful to MTN for the timely intervention which enabled them to complete their education without any problem.
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