Hungarian government awards more scholarships to Ghanaians
Starting from this year, the government of Hungary will be awarding scholarships to 100 young Ghanaian students to study in that country.
The initiative, which will be spearheaded by the Scholarship Secretariat, is not limited to any field of study but across all disciplines.
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Since the re-establishment of its embassy in Accra in 2016, the Government of Hungary has been awarding scholarships to 50 Ghanaian students annually to pursue various programmes in that country as part of the Stipendum Hungaricum Programme.
As part of efforts to deepen Hungary's bilateral relations with Ghana in the field of education, the Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences (MATE) has also established an agency known as the Hungarian Education Agency in Ghana to facilitate and support interested Ghanaians to study in Hungary.
Human development
Addressing a news conference in Accra last Thursday, the Ambassador of Hungary to Ghana, Mr Andras Szabo, said the decision to double the number of beneficiaries for its scholarship programme was informed by its focus on human development as part of Hungary's relations with Ghana.
He said the Hungarian government faced a tough challenge re-establishing its embassy in Ghana as it lost all of its contacts after 30 years of departing from the country.
He expressed confidence that investments in education and human development would help boost Hungary's bilateral ties and cooperation with Ghana.
"We decided that the human touch was important, so there was one element which we found important, and that was why the Hungarian government decided to offer 50 scholarships when we came here in 2016.
"Later, my minister doubled it up and so now, starting from this year, 100 young Ghanaians can start their studies every year all over the country in different universities," he said.
Agriculture
Mr Szabo said agriculture was also a priority of the Hungarian government and pledged its readiness to support Ghana and Africa to deploy modern technology to promote food security.
He urged Ghanaian students to consider agriculture as an area of study and the acquisition of knowledge on how to adopt technology to transform agriculture in Ghana.
"We have to think about the future of Africa and food security and we must combine our forces. You have the great land and the climate.
“We have the technology and the modernisation of agriculture and I believe that when we work together, we can modernise agriculture on the continent," he said.
MATE
The Rector of the MATE, Professor Csaba Gyurizca, explained that its agency in Ghana would provide assistance to Ghanaian students who would wish to study in Hungary on the application process and available courses.
He urged all students in the country to take advantage of the opportunity to enhance their knowledge and skills in diverse disciplines.
For his part, an Economist and International Relations Expert, Dr Lawrence Tetteh, who studied in Hungary in the 1980s, urged interested students to ensure that their documents were genuine to avert disqualification during the application process.