Yinson introduces scholarship programme for communities
Yinson Production, West Africa, a multi-national company which built a Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO), vessel currently moored on the Offshore Cape Three Points (OCTP) field in the Ahanta West Municipality in the Western Region has launched an annual scholarship scheme for needy students in the region.
The scheme, known as the Yinson Scholars Programme, is providing financial assistance for 10 SHS students annually for the period of their stay in their respective schools.
Targets
The programme targets students from low-income households in the vessel’s host communities of Apowa, Kejabil and Prestea, all in the Ahanta West District.
The beneficiaries of the scholarship who are on the Green Track for the 2019/2020 academic year, which started in September this year, were given monthly stipends and basic necessities such as trunks, “chop boxes,” exercise and text books, pillows and students mattress, calculators, school bags as well as shoes.
The scholarship is in recognition of the fact that despite the introduction of the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy, some parents from low-income homes still have challenges meeting the basic logistical requirements to enable their children to gain secondary education.
Speaking at the launch and presentation of the awards to the beneficiaries, the Local Content and Corporate Social Responsibility Manager of Yinson Production, West Africa, Mr Edward Mensah said the move was to give back to the local communities where the company operated currently.
Future generation
“We believe in investing in the future generation by improving access to quality education in our quest to ensure continuous quality human resource development for the country and host communities.
“Yinson believes in improving the areas where we operate and we attach the same level of importance to our impactful social investment as we do to our core business and the principle is to maintain a cordial and a mutually beneficial relationship with the leaders and people in our host communities,” he said.
Other supports
In the past, the company through its social investment projects, provided a 1,000 seating capacity assembly hall to the Nkroful SHS in the Western Region with an embedded sustainability component for maintenance of the facility.
In the Sekondi/Takoradi area, the company provided a modern welding training centre for the Takoradi Technical Institute (TTI) together with an annual provision of consumables worth $15,000.00 to enhance training.
For his part, the District Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Education Service (GES) in the Ahanta West, Municipality Mr Daniel Payne, commended Yinson for the initiative and said even although there was Free SHS, “this will go a long way to support parents and guardians in the purchase of other consumables, text books and other supplementary items.”
A parent, Mr Clement Duho, commended the company for the initiative and prayed that the beneficiaries would justify their selection to pave the way for others in subsequent years.
The Queen mother of Kejabil, Nana Ebum II, urged students in the community to take their studies seriously to enable them to benefit from the scholarship scheme.