TSAF supports needy students

STORY: ROSE AMI KPOGOH
Ten needy students from the University of Ghana, Legon, have received scholarships from Tropical Saint Anthony Foundation (TSAF), a non-governmental organisation (NGO) based in Accra.
The beneficiary students include 8 ladies and 2 young men who are studying science and engineering programs respectively at the university.
The scholarship package is expected to cover both their academic user facility fees and residential facility user fees.
This was announced by Mr. Anthony Oteng-Gyasi, the chairman of TSAF, who doubles as the Managing Director of Tropical Cables and Conductors Limited at the launch of the Tropical Saint Anthony Foundation, held at the premises of the University of Ghana.
According to Mr. Oteng-Gyasi, the support seeks to give students from poor families some financial relief to enable them pursue academic programmes at the tertiary level.
“This decision was taken primarily because we were convinced that education at the tertiary level should no longer be a burden on central government and the public purse; at the same time, students from low-income families should not be excluded from tertiary education,” underscored Mr. Oteng-Gyasi.
He was quick to add that even though past scholarships has been given to “needy but brilliant students,” theirs was exceptional in the sense that their scholarship goes out to only needy students at the university.
“Usually, in Ghana, scholarships for low-income families are supposed to go to needy but brilliant students. The emphasis is on brilliant, but for TSAF, we do not insist on brilliance,” he emphasised.
In order to be able to sustain and increase its coverage, the foundation has registered the project by depositing one hundred thousand Ghana Cedis (GH¢100,000) as a start-up capital.
He further disclosed that their next point of call would be the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) as well as other universities in the country.
A former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Professor Alex Kwapong, who was the guest speaker, in his address commended Mr. Oteng-Gyasi and his organisation for taking up the challenge to help needy students to acquire university education.
“The tropical Saint Foundation has set a very laudable example and we recommend this exemplary initiative to other Ghanaian private organization,” he noted
Prof. Kwapong also charged the beneficiary students to make good use of the facility by studying hard.