The West Africa Gas Pipeline Company (WAPCo) LTD, under its livelihood support programme of scholarship and skills acquisition scheme, has so far supported 503 students in Ghana.
The company also disbursed the cedi equivalent of about $921,000.00 to ensure the youth in their host communities had equal opportunities to develop and achieve their potential.
D Isaac Adjei Doku, General Manager Corporate Affairs, made this known when the company presented scholarships awards to 49 brilliant students in the Shama district of the Western Region.
He explained that the company’s livelihood support programme consisted of two schemes, a scholarship scheme and skills acquisition scheme, adding that the Shama presentation was the ninth batch of students under the WAPCo scholarship scheme, which he said was yielding positive results.
“We say without any equivocation that WAPCo in partnership with host communities is impacting the lives of the youth in our host communities one batch at a time.”
Dr Doku said in administering their livelihood programmes, they ensured that their core values of diversity and inclusion and safeguard fair representation from each community were reflected in the selection process for the awards, adding that out of 395 scholarship awardees given so far, 195 were females.
He said WAPCo’s investment was also to ensure that their host communities had the talents for their growth and development and noted that” research indicates that there is significant correlation between the cognitive abilities of a population and long-term economic growth, which is more potent than simply measuring their educational attainment”.
Dr Doku indicated that over the period, WAPCo sponsored students have pursued more than 20 different courses, reflecting the diversity of interest and pool of employable talents and skills being developed in the host communities.
He mentioned Doctor of Optometry, Medicine and surgery, Nautical Science, Petroleum Engineering, Actuarial science, law, environmental and safety engineering as some of the courses the beneficiaries pursued in 13 tertiary institutions across the country in the past three years.
He said the company would in the 2022/2023 academic year spend six hundred and forty-one thousand seven hundred Ghana cedis on scholarships.
“We are proud to say that we have so far achieved a 100 percent completion rate as all previous recipients of WAPCo scholarship, except those in school, have successfully completed their programme and graduated. The academic excellence of these graduates is reflective of our One WAPCo core value of operational excellence”
He added “We are pleased to note the recent successful completion of the 6th batch of students from their various tertiary institutions of special mention is Christopher Amoasi, from Lower Inchaban in the Shama District.
HE Studied Law at the University of Cape Coast and graduated with First Class Honours and was adjudged the overall best graduating male Law student.
Mr Ebenezer Dadzie, the DCE for Shama District Assembly explained that such scholarship would allow the beneficiaries to unearth their hidden potentials to achieve their dreams to help develop the country.
He said the scholarship scheme would help accelerate the development of human capital to impact on the much-expected growth of the country.
Mr Dadzie reiterated that the Assembly would partner WAPCo to help uplift the image of the district through education.
He appealed to the company to help train the youth to spearhead energy revolution in green energy which is cheaper to help improve the socio-economic conditions of the people.
Mr Samuel Erickson Abakah, the Member of Parliament for Shama Constituency said education remained key in building better foundation and was hopeful that WAPCo would increase the number of awardees to benefit many more brilliant students whose parents were having socio-economic challenges in catering for them.
He advised the beneficiaries to make maximum use of the scholarship to improve their lives and that of their families.
Nana Korba Aboo III, the Queen mother of Aboadze and Nana Nka Numako IV, Queen mother of Graveldo Nkyirkyir commended WAPCo for the scholarship scheme and advised the beneficiaries to take their studies seriously to justify their inclusion and to pave the way for others.
Nana Kwamina Wienoo II, the acting paramount chief of Shama Traditional Council encouraged WAPCo to continue with such livelihood empowerment programme to help the district to achieve the needed human capital development to impact the growth of the district.
