VRA awards scholarships to 61 students

The Volta River Authority (VRA) has awarded scholarships to 61 brilliant but needy students from second cycle and tertiary levels as part of its community development programme.

The scholarship award, which was themed “Sustaining Development Through Education”, would benefit 15 students from the tertiary level and 46 from the Senior High School (SHS) level.

Mr Kirk Koffi, the Chief Executive of VRA, said the community development programme was aimed at supporting sustainable development and enlightenment through education in communities affected by VRA’s operations.

He also underscored the importance of education to development and other social community development interventions.

“VRA recognizes that support towards social infrastructure development, provision of potable drinking water, health, and environmental activities cannot be sustained if we do not maintain our interest and desire to support education in our communities,” he said.

Deputy Volta Regional Minister, Mr. Francis Komla Ganyaglo, who chaired the event, said the theme was carefully chosen by VRA to highlight the need for society to focus more on community development and to ensure equity in education for the brilliant but needy.

He noted that education was an important indicator of economic development and it had become expensive over the past few years, requiring perseverance and determination to climb higher.

In a speech read on her behalf, Minister of Education, Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyeman expressed gratitude to VRA and said the Ghana Education Service would monitor the students through its Senior High Coordinators and Guidance and Counselling Coordinators.

She also urged students whose parents were into agriculture to assist their parents when on holidays, saying: “It is no shame to work on the farm or to help in fish farming.”

The 15 beneficiaries at the tertiary level are six students from the University of Ghana, three from the University of Health and Allied Sciences, two from University of Professional Studies and one each from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi Polytechnic, Cape Coast University and the Ada College of Education.

The forty-six at the SHS level include students from Akuse Methodist SHS, Anlo, Sogakope, Akwamuman, Asesewa, Ada, Adidome and Shama Senior High Schools and Osodoku and Boso Senior High Technical Schools.

According to VRA’s Chief Executive, 260 have benefitted from the scholarship scheme since its inception in 2011 and 80 per cent of students awarded scholarships during VRA’s 50th anniversary had earned admission to tertiary institutions.