British American Tobacco Increases Support

In its bid to help the country attain excellence in education, British American Tobacco (BAT) Ghana has donated ?20 million to the Ghana Education Trust Fund and announced the expansion of its annual education sponsorship programme to ?300 million from 2001.

The amount covers scholarships for children of employees and tobacco farmers at Senior Secondary School level as well as support for needy but brilliant undergraduate students.

Part of it will be channeled into the BAT Ghana Fellowship for graduate studies at the University of Ghana to be awarded to an M. Phil. Graduate with outstanding academic performance. It attracts a US$3,400 award payable in cedis including a monthly stipend of US$100 and a one-time research or thesis grant of US$1,000 for the two-year programme.

BAT would continue to honour the best graduating students in the Humanities, Sciences and Communication Studies at the University of Ghana and for Agricultural Science at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).

BAT announced a new package with effect from the 2001/2 academic year, to also honour the overall best graduating student in the University of Cape Coast (UCC), University for Development Studies (UDS), University College of Education Winneba (UCEW) and KNUST. Each winner will receive a cash award of ?2 million.

BAT will from 2002 adopt a faculty in one of the five state run universities and provide it with equipment or books based on felt needs to the tune of ?100million.

Mr. Kofi Selby, Corporate and Regulatory Affairs Director, BAT, said though the Ghana Education Trust Fund is a palliative measure to complement central government funding, the 2.5% VAT levy is inadequate to meet the needs of the education sector. He assured that the Company would continue to support education development in Ghana.