Finatrade foundation: “a decade of exemplary corporate social responsibility”

In August 2003, the Finatrade Foundation was established by the Finatrade Group of Companies as its corporate social responsibility wing with major focus on education, agriculture and humanitarian activities.



Established as a non-profit organization, the Finatrade Foundation is dedicated to promoting socio-economic development. For the past ten years the Finatrade Foundation has engaged in numerous activities and programmes that have touched the lives of many Ghanaians. This accomplishment has been made possible under the able leadership of its board Chairperson, Dr. Ms. Joyce Rosalind Aryee, the Executive Secretary John Awuni, and the other esteemed board members of the Foundation. The Foundation’s funding has been provided by the Finatrade group of companies, namely, CCTC, Davenport, Market Direct Limited, FL Logistics, Sucatrade and Akuafo Adamfo.



EDUCATION

To ensure that Ghana’s agricultural sector and food industries get the needed human resource capital, the Foundation chose the awarding of scholarship to brilliant but needy students studying agricultural as its flagship programme.



So far 168 under graduate students in four public universities namely, UNIVERSITY OF GHANA (UG), KWAME NKRUMAH UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (KNUST), UNIVERSITY OF CAPE COAST (UCC) AND THE UNIVERSITY OF DEVELOPMENT STUDIES (UDS) have received scholarships from the Foundation. The scholarship given to these students has proven to be a worthy cause, as the vast majority of the beneficiaries continue to graduate from their various universities with either first class, or a second class, upper honours.



The Foundation has also rolled out a two year Post-graduate Scholarship Programme for agricultural students in the four universities. One student from each university is chosen annually, with the total post-graduate beneficiaries now at eight.



Finatrade Foundation Scholarship students also benefit from the firsthand experience the receive from engaging in a compulsory six-week industrial practical attachment with the Finatrade group of companies.



MODEL FARMS



Aside paying the fees of the students the Finatrade Foundation has also established model farms at two different universities with a seed fund of GH¢50,000.00. This year, due to the success of this initiative, the Foundation Board increased the funding by GH¢100,000.00 per model farm. This is expected to increase students’ chances of getting practical contemporary agric training, and build their entrepreneurial skills.



The model farm at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology has shown particular success. It focuses on live stock breeding and research, horticulture and crop science, and soil science, and has so far produced over 1,000 broilers, a piggery and a successful grass cultivation project. The model farm project at the College of Agriculture and Consumer Sciences, University of Ghana, has produced cowpeas, okra, tomatoes and pepper. Both farms are serving as study centers for all agric students at both universities.



The Foundation also supports other non-agric education activities. For example, as part of it’s 10th anniversary celebrations this year, the Foundation donated twenty-one thousand (21,000) school bags made from recycled materials, as well as educational materials, to schools within the Ledzokoku-Krowor Municipality and the Omega schools in the Greater Accra, Eastern and Central regions.



HUMANITARIAN SUPPORT

• The Foundation has so far supported 6 heart patients to undergo various heart surgeries at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, and has donated over 46,000 Euros worth of adult diapers to key government hospitals in the country.

• In 2005 the Foundation raised funds to help Latif Issaka, aged 13 year, to undergo heart surgery, and donated money towards the surgery of Jared Fiifi Bentsil Nuamah, a 10 month old baby with a hole-in-heart condition. In 2009 the Foundation also made a cash donation to the Golden Hearts Trust, a charitable organization committed to improving the lives of children with congenital or acquired heart disorders.

• The Finatrade Foundation has collaborated with the Mother and Child Foundation to fete over 150 orphaned pupils at the Kordiebe Catholic Basic School in the Eastern region.

• In June 2011 an explosion in Brawire, at Axim in the Western region, claimed the lives of a number of fishermen, while others sustained aggravated injuries. Touched by this tragic event and the lack of facilities to deal with it, the Foundation, together with other contributors, donated four ventilators with anesthesia to the Reconstructive Plastic Surgery and Burns Centre at the Korle Bu Teaching hospital. These ventilators support the center and give hope to burns patients with breathing difficulties.

• In 2013 the Foundation further supported the Children’s and Neurological unit of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital to undertake a complicated neurological procedure on a seven month old baby Ronald Awotwe.

• In 2006, the Finatrade Foundation collaborated with the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT to prmote ICT development in Ghana; this was achieved by sponsoring the first “I TOO CAN PROGRAMME” (i2cap) computer programming competition for senior high schools throughout the country. The Foundation funded the construction of a fully furnished computer library complex at Wankyi in the Ashanti region. Other beneficiary organizations include the Prisons Ministry of Ghana, the Ga West Municipal Assembly.

• In October 2013, the Foundation, in partnership with the Chefs for Change Ghana Foundation, and in celebrating this year’s UN World Food Day, is feeding over 3,000 under privileged orphans, aged, and mentally disabled members of society.



FUTURE OUTLOOKS

With developed economies focusing on Africa becoming the bread basket of the world, the Finatrade Foundation hopes to make its scholarship scheme more meaningful over the coming years, by encouraging students to remain in the agric sector after graduating. The Foundation believes that it is essential that Finatrade Foundation Scholarship beneficiary students see farming as a viable business. The Foundation also hopes to expand the scope of all its additional activities in the coming years so as to continue to make a positive and meaningful impact in the communities within which Finatrade operates.