The scholarship from the Volta River Authority (VRA) is intended to support the beneficiaries chosen from some communities in its operational areas in the Eastern and Volta Regions.

It forms part of the VRA’s 2023 Community Development Programme (CDP) Scholarship Awards.

This year’s awards scheme was on the theme: “VRA: Inculcating Creativity and Innovation through Education in our Impacted Communities’’.

Package

Addressing a ceremony at the Akuse Club House in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality to present the package to the beneficiaries, the Deputy Chief Executive of VRA in charge of Services, Kenneth Arthur, said since 2011, 389 students from Akosombo, Akuse, Tema, Kpone and Aboadze operational areas had been sponsored under the scholarship scheme 234 at the senior high school level and 155 at the tertiary level.

“Today, 60 brilliant but needy students offering various programmes from the Sciences to Humanities at different levels in the various public tertiary institutions will be awarded scholarships worth GH¢1 million for the 2021/ 2022 and 2022/2023 academic years which brings the total of beneficiaries to 449,” he explained.

He explained further that the CDP scholarship programme was competitive and priority was given to applicants offering programmes in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

Mr Arthur added that VRA was on a digital transformation trajectory in line with their creativity and innovation agenda, and as such the scholarship application had been migrated online.

Some of the beneficiaries of the VRA Scholarship programme

The VRA deputy chief executive stated that the scholarship scheme had chalked many successes since its inception as majority of the beneficiaries were first generation scholars in their families and in some cases communities.

He cited an example that last year,  27 students graduated from their institutions and five came out with First Class Honours.

He said it was worth noting that the past beneficiaries had formed an alumni association with the aim of significantly contributing to the development of their various communities, adding “a few have been active participants of the Authority’s flagship Employee Volunteer Programme (EVP), a platform for sharing experiences, counselling and imparting knowledge to students in public senior high schools within the VRA’s operational areas’’.

The Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, in a speech read on his behalf by the Director of Finance at the Ministry of Education, Dr Nana Anna-Bonny, lauded VRA for adding value to the lives of the beneficiaries in its operational areas.

He said with the annual intervention that continued to bring visions that could have been impaired by financial challenges to life, there was the need for VRA to continue to sustain the initiative to provide universal education for all, especially the disadvantaged in society.

Godsend

In an appreciation, a beneficiary, Charlotte Edinam Xorxornu, who spoke on behalf of the other beneficiaries, said but for the VRA scholarship she and the others would have no chance to taste tertiary education.

She, therefore, assured the authority that they would make good use of the opportunity offered to them.

The Paramount Chief of the Manya Krobo Traditional Area, Nene Sakite II, who chaired the programme, emphasised the importance of education,  saying it was the best way to equip and empower the young people to take up the mantle of leadership of the country in future.