Seven hundred and ninety-three students of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) who have struggled for access to laptops have been presented with brand-new laptops.

Linda Afia Aboagye is a brilliant 18-year-old student reading medicine whose dream is to become a medical doctor.

Her programme requires her to do a lot of research to support her studies, but the financial strength of her family meant that getting a laptop was equally a dream.

Fortunately for Linda, the Support One Needy Student With One Laptop (SONSOL) project initiated by the Vice Chancellor of KNUST which provides laptops for needy, but brilliant students like Linda came to her rescue, as she has been provided with a brand-new laptop to support her studies.

Speaking to Citi News, Linda expressed gratitude to KNUST, adding that the laptop will go a long way to support her studies.

“I know that this laptop will help me very much in my academics and my research work. I’m very grateful to them for giving me this laptop.”

Many of the beneficiaries of the project just like Linda say owning a laptop to support their studies came too soon thanks to the SONSOL project by the Vice Chancellor of the University.

According to the Vice Chancellor, Prof Rita Akosua Dickson, the project which started in 2021 became necessary when the COVID-19 pandemic compelled many schools to start online teaching which unfortunately for many brilliant but needy students, they could not access due to lack of laptops.

“With the advent of COVID-19, which led to the 30% online teaching policy of the University, it became evident that some brilliant but needy students were struggling to access teaching and learning and needed to be supported by all means,” Vice Chancellor, Prof. Rita Akosua Dickson noted.

This year’s project has seen the distribution of  793 laptops to brilliant but needy students, which has been valued 3.9 million Ghana cedis.

The Vice-Chancellor Rita Akosua Dickson says the initiative will not have been possible without the benevolence of their partners who include, SIC, KEK Insurance, Jospong Group of Companies, ABSA Bank, Standard Chattered Bank, CBG Bank, Cal Bank, Stanbic Bank, Ecobank, Vodafone, Andysap Furniture, Vesterline Company Ltd and Newmont Ghana, Myturn.

She further urged the beneficiaries of the laptops to make judicious use of them in order to be able to give back to support more brilliant but needy students in the near future.