Stanbic Bank donates laptops to KNUST
Stanbic Bank Ghana has presented 50 laptops to the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) as part of its support to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).
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The laptops are expected to enhance the teaching and learning of STEM courses.
The presentation of the 50 laptops formed part of the last consignment of the 200 laptops the bank pledged three years ago to support STEM education, with a focus on Women in STEM (WiSTEM).
Making the presentation, the Head of Marketing and Communication of the bank, Mawuko Afadzinu, said the bank decided to focus on girls’ education to encourage more of them to study STEM.
He said although the university had the prerogative to choose the beneficiaries, “at least 80 per cent of the recipients should be needy girls in ICT.”
Mr Afadzinu said the bank had designed a programme to track the progress of the beneficiaries of the laptop and “So far we are seeing improvement in their performance.”
Challenge
According to him, it was the feedback from that programme that encouraged the bank to fulfil its promise to the university in spite of the challenges that the industry went through last year.
Mr Afadzinu explained that the year 2022 was a very challenging year for the banking industry in general.
He said the organisation found it prudent to still find money to support such a project.
Mr Afadzinu explained that per the structure of the organisation, such programmes could only be supported with profits made from the business.
“The organisation decided that it was going to take a long-term view of the relationship and we, therefore, treated the very peculiar difficult circumstances of 2022 as a unique case and made this exception that, yes, the year was difficult, but we will still go ahead and find money from somewhere to support a project like this,” he said.
Appreciation
The Vice-Chancellor of KNUST, Professor Rita Akosua Dickson, was very grateful to the bank for keeping faith with the university and honouring its promises in spite of the financial challenges of last year.
She said the bank had proved to be a dependable partner in development because even in the midst of the hardships “you can still bend beyond yourselves and show such great love to the university and to the students and ladies who without this kind of assistance would find it difficult to cope with studies on campus.”
Prof. Dickson said the university was now using the hybrid system of teaching which included 30 per cent online.
She expressed the belief that the donation would go a long way to support the students.
Appeal
Prof. Dickson appealed to other corporate bodies to support the university to train the manpower needs of the country.