Bank’s scholarship scheme yields fruitful results

A scholarship scheme instituted by the Nwabiagya Rural Bank 12 years ago to support brilliant, needy students in its operational area is yielding fruitful results.

While some of the beneficiaries have become medical officers, helping to provide primary health care for people in the communities, others are employed in engineering, the financial sector and teaching profession and are making meaningful contributions to national development.

Beneficiaries

The General Manager of Nwabiagya Rural Bank, Mr Samuel Nuamah-Dankwa, announced this when he presented cheques valued at GH¢18,400 to 23 individual beneficiaries of the scheme for the 2015/16 academic year. He said as many as 320 students had benefited from the scheme since it was instituted in 2003.

He said besides constructing the Barekese Senior High School for the communities in its operational area as part of its corporate social responsibilities, the bank had so far spent a total of GH¢350,930 on the scholarship scheme to enable the beneficiaries to focus on their academic work.

He added that some of the beneficiaries had built their capacity in a way that had put them in gainful employment, thus it was possible for them to support their immediate families and their respective communities in diverse ways.

Corporate social responsibilities

“We created the scholarship scheme to give back to the communities that have supported the bank since its establishment. That is why we have committed ourselves to promote education, health and sanitation in our operational area,” Mr Nuamah-Dankwa explained.

He stated that the scheme was also instituted because they realised that some of the students were very brilliant, but their parents lacked the needed resources to sponsor their education, adding that “so far, about 200 students have been supported to further their education at the various tertiary institutions. At the pre-tertiary level, about 120 students have benefited.”

Competition

According to Mr Nuamah-Dankwa, the institution of the scheme has created intense competition among the youth who yearn to benefit from the facility.

He said children of peasant farmers were always on the priority list and gave an assurance that the programme would be sustained.
“Our goal is to increase the literate population in the communities in which we operate in particular and the nation in general, because a literate population is critical to the nation,” he explained.