Support more needy students with scholarships — UG valedictorian
A valedictorian of the January 2022 graduating cohort of the University of Ghana, Legon, Mr Michael Ampah, has appealed to corporate organisations and benevolent institutions and individuals to increase support to needy students across the country.
Mr Ampah said students from underprivileged homes and communities needed to be supported with scholarships to enable them to realise their dreams through education.
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He explained that while businesses and other organisations were doing their part to better the lot of society through corporate social responsibilities (CSRs), special attention needed to be paid to students whose families were unable to finance their education.
This, he said, would help to preserve the talents and realise the potential of underprivileged students to ensure that they were not killed by poverty and related challenge.
It would also help to narrow the poverty gap in the country and increase the pool of competent human resources available to corporate bodies and the nation as a whole for development, he said.
Mr Ampah, who is a beneficiary of a scholarship package from the Tropical Students Support Initiative (TSSI), was speaking to the paper after delivering his valedictorian speech at the University of Ghana’s hybrid graduation in January.
Humble home
A graduate of Public Administration and Chinese, Mr Ampah completed with a final grade average point (FGAP) of 3.92, earning him the honour to deliver the commendation speech during the university’s graduation ceremony.
He told the paper that but for the benevolent support from the TSSI, an initiative of Tropical Cable and Conductor Limited (TCCL), his education would have been truncated in junior high or at best senior high.
He recalled that after successfully passing the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), his family found it difficult to continue financing his education.
He said his father was forced to sell the family’s only parcel of land to pay his admission to the Swedru Senior High School (SWESCO).
Mr Ampah said how to finance the rest of his three-year stay in the school was in doubt until he was introduced to the Mary Oteng Foundation.
Mary Oteng
Mr Ampah was first introduced to the Mary Oteng Foundation, another initiative of the Oteng-Gyasi Family, by his teacher, Reverend Addei Baah.
The foundation sponsored his secondary education after which he was offered another full-time scholarship by the TSSI.
The initiative is administered by a three-member board of trustees comprising industrialist, Mr Oteng-Gyasi with Prof. Clifford Nii Boi Tagoe, a former Vice Chancellor of University of Ghana, and Mr Alfred Teddy Konu, a former Registrar of the same university, as members.
He noted that but for those benevolent gestures, he could have ended up like any of the many brilliant needy school dropouts across the country.
Prioritise education
He said it was imperative for other corporate institutions to use scholarship programmes to develop human capital for growth.
He observed that while more businesses wanted to invest in CSR projects that were visible and returned immediate results, it needed to be weighed against the need to develop competent human resource.
“Investing in human resource is the best investment. Besides, the youth are the future of this country and they are the future employees and managers of companies,” he said.
“My appeal is for companies to look at my story and support other students. If I was not supported, I could have dropped out but here I am with first class honours,” he added.
Mr Ampah also appealed to scholarship beneficiaries and potential ones to take their studies seriously to help motivate their sponsors to extend the support to others.
About TSSI
Formerly called Tropical Saint Anthony’s Foundation, the TSSI is a charitable organisation established by TCCL, an indigenous company, in May 2010 to provide scholarships to deserving students who have applied to study or are studying at the University of Ghana.
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The initiative to set up the foundation was by Mr Oteng-Gyasi, the then Managing Director but now the Chairman of TCCL, and his wife, Mrs Barbara Oteng-Gyasi, then the Head of Legal of a multinational oil firm and the immediate past Minister of Tourism and Creative Arts.
It was primarily to assist deserving students admitted to the University of Ghana to pursue undergraduate programmes with special emphasis on Science.
Expanded mandate
In July 2017, however, the trustees of the initiative extended the scholarship to include students admitted to the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).
It was in in line with the belief that the country needed to increase its capacity in science and technology to keep pace with global trends and remain relevant. This object may, however, be expanded to include other charitable initiatives in education as determined by the Board of Trustees from time to time.
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As at the end of the 2020/2021 academic year, 39 students had graduated from the scholarship scheme and have gone on to pursue masters programmes and other professional courses. It currently has 14 beneficiaries in the programme.