GNPC offers scholarships to 1,000 tertiary students

Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) will provide scholarships for 1,000 students entering tertiary institutions over the next four years, starting from this academic year.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GNPC, Dr K. K. Sarpong, who revealed this last Thursday, said special attention would be given to women and students venturing into the sciences, particularly engineering, mathematics and technology.

Speaking in Takoradi after the ceremony to mark the first oil flow from the country’s third independent oil field, the CEO said the move would significantly improve the industry’s contribution to localisation, skills and technology transfers, as well as the general well-being of Ghanaians.

Social investment pillars

“We are projecting to spend $3,500 per student per annum. This is more than adequate for such training to be done in Ghana, compared with about $60,000 per student a year when trained overseas. Therefore, in the next four years, beginning this year, a total of 1,000 scholarships will be awarded,” he said.

He added that “the new direction of GNPC is anchored on three pillars: education and training, environment and social amenities, as well as economic empowerment.”

Under the education and training, Dr Sarpong said emphasis would be shifted from the granting of scholarships to study abroad to scholarships tenable in the country’s tertiary institutions, mainly Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education.

“The focus will be the basic sciences, namely, physics, chemistry and biology, and mathematics. This is to provide science resource personnel for our second cycle schools and research institutions,” he said.

The engineering and technology component of the scheme, he explained, would be skewed towards women under a well- structured Women in Engineering Initiative (WEI) to whip up the interest of women in the field of engineering.

Oil and gas impact

Dr Sarpong said the GNPC would consciously invest significant resources to minimise the impact of oil and gas operations on the environment and improve the social conditions of the people under the environment and social amenities pillar of its new social investment approach.

For tangible investments that would directly impact the lives of thousands in society, he said boreholes would be provided to provide potable water in deprived communities across the country, especially in the three regions of the north.

Inhabitants of enclave

The CEO assured the inhabitants in the Western enclave and the Voltaian Basin of a well-crafted support for their key economic activities. “GNPC will work with identifiable development-oriented organisations and partners to assist farmers and fishermen in these areas to have access to inputs, markets, credit facilities, advisory services and value-addition.”

Dr Sarpong called on stakeholders in the oil and gas sector to develop an industry-wide corporate social investment strategy that was well coordinated, better targeted and highly responsive to the real needs of the people.