The Bongo District Assembly in the Upper East Region has awarded scholarships to 64 vulnerable tertiary students to support pay their school fees to enable them to pursue their studies.
The District Chief Executive(DCE) of Bongo, Mr Peter Ayinbisa Ayamga, made this known to the media in Bongo on Monday when he presented to the beneficiary students, letters of payment of their fees into their various institutions’ bank accounts.
The DCE indicated that the district had provided GH₵64,000.00 to support brilliant but needy students who had gained admission into tertiary institutions and disclosed that more than 200 students applied for the grant in which an interview was conducted to select the beneficiaries.
The highest amount to be given to a beneficiary was GH₵2,850.00 while the lowest amount a beneficiary had received was GH₵800.00.
The DCE indicated that the monies had already been paid to their various institutions’ bank accounts.
He admonished the students to focus on their studies to enable them to acquire the necessary knowledge that would empower them to contribute to poverty reduction in the area and accelerate sustainable development.
Mr Ayamga explained that as part of the decentralisation agenda of the government, it had decentralised the scholarship secretariat to the various districts and this had enabled many students in the district who might not have had the opportunity to benefit from the grant.
The DCE therefore appealed to government to consider decentralising every sector recruitment exercise to the various district levels and added that this would enable many of the indigenes to benefit from such initiatives.
This, he said, would eliminate the situation where people were recruited outside the district when there were lots of qualified people in the various districts and added that this would help solve the unemployment situation, especially in the less endowed districts.
The students expressed gratitude to the Bongo District Assembly and government for the support and promised to study hard to come out well-equipped to contribute meaningfully to nation building.
Mr Stephen Nkoo, a beneficiary and student of the Zuarungu Nursing Training College indicated that the support was a big relief to him as he found it difficult to pay all his fees last year.
Ms Mercy Awintanga, another beneficiary and student of the University of Cape Coast revealed that she could not pay her fees last year due to extreme poverty as a result of the fact that the business her father was doing to support the family had collapsed.
FROM SAMUEL AKAPULE, BONGO
