Kabaka Foundation supports VC’s laptop initiative

The Kabaka Foundation has presented 20 laptops, 20 Solar Power banks and Laptop bags towards the University of Ghana Vice-Chancellor’s “One Student, One Laptop (1S1L)” initiative. 

The gesture comes under the foundation’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) project and is a demonstration of their commitment towards the attainment of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4) of Quality Education. 

The ‘One Student, One Laptop’ initiative, launched by the VC in 2021, is aimed at ‘supporting needy students in the new virtual learning environment. 

It also seeks to equip students and staff of the university to enhance teaching and learning and reduce the digital divide. 

The Chairman of the Kabaka Foundation, Nana Owiredu Wadie I, who led the delegation to present the laptops, said the foundation was committed to support the VC’s initiative, along with scholarships for a minimum standard of five to 10 students every year.

According to him, the UN Sustainable Development Goals emphasised the importance of education and the foundation was dedicated to supporting the less privileged. 

He lauded the vice-chancellor’s initiative to support students , saying: “Laptops are an essential tool for learning and acquiring skills that would ensure students’ readiness for the world of work.” 

The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Nana Aba Appiah Amfo, who received the laptops on behalf of the university, thanked the donors for the kind gesture, saying “since we launched it, we have had 500 laptops. So the 20 laptops bring the total number of laptops received under the 1S1L initiative to five hundred and twenty (520 ).” 

The initiative, she said, had three components including providing free laptops for needy students, partnering companies to establish a laptop assembling plant and equipping the school’s computer laboratories. 

“The University of Ghana is very inclusive and embracing and so we have students from all kinds of backgrounds. So this initiative will ensure students and staff buy laptops at reasonable prices and also students who live with disabilities have access and are not hindered from getting digital skills,” she added. 

She said the university was committed to continuing its partnership with the foundation and, therefore, assured the group that the items would be put to very good use. 

Prof Amfo said the university had begun the process of distributing the laptops to beneficiaries and was confident that the students would put the laptops to good use.