Prof Aryeetey, Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana
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25th September, 2010
FINATRADE Sponsors 10 Needy Varsity Students
Finatrade Foundation has made available a total of GHC 6,000 this academic year to support 10 needy but brilliant students of the College of Agriculture and Consumer Sciences of the University of Ghana, Legon.
This brings to 126, the total number of such students sponsored by Finatrade under its Foundation Scholarship Scheme, which seeks to ensure adequate and efficient labour force in the country’s agricultural sector.
At a ceremony to present cheques to the beneficiary students at the university on Thursday, Mr. John Awuni, Director of Corporate Affairs, Finatrade Group of Companies, said: “The idea of supporting brilliant but needy students in the four public universities is to solve a problem that we have identified in the agricultural sector.
“We believe that if the country is to feed itself well, there must be adequate and efficient labour force…the supply of fertilizers to farmers is not the only solution to problems in the agricultural sector,” he said, adding “You may have the inputs but you will also require a certain level of knowledge to apply the inputs correctly.”
He said the Foundation would roll out a new scheme to fund research in agriculture for students pursuing Masters Degree programmes, as a way of whipping up interest in the sector and encouraging the pursuit of agriculture as a business rather than a past time.
The Foundation would also support the university to introduce the model farm concept currently being practiced by agric students of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, to enable students of Legon to have a practical feel of what they learn while earning an income from it at the same time.
Mr. Awuni urged students of the college to come up with proposals on agricultural projects to enable Finatrade to support them.
He said the foundation of agriculture in the country was very weak, stressing that, after 50 years, the country should have been able to produce enough to feed itself.
Mr. Awuni, who is to be inducted into the College’s Council this year, advised the college and other agricultural institutions against looking up always to the central government for funding of its activities urging it to go into public-private partnerships.
He said the Foundation’s financial support to needy students annually would be increased from GHC 600 per student to GHC 700 per student.
Professor Benjamin Ahunu, Provost of the college, noted that for about six years, Finatrade had been supporting not only agricultural students of the university but students from the three other public universities.
This brings to 126, the total number of such students sponsored by Finatrade under its Foundation Scholarship Scheme, which seeks to ensure adequate and efficient labour force in the country’s agricultural sector.
At a ceremony to present cheques to the beneficiary students at the university on Thursday, Mr. John Awuni, Director of Corporate Affairs, Finatrade Group of Companies, said: “The idea of supporting brilliant but needy students in the four public universities is to solve a problem that we have identified in the agricultural sector.
“We believe that if the country is to feed itself well, there must be adequate and efficient labour force…the supply of fertilizers to farmers is not the only solution to problems in the agricultural sector,” he said, adding “You may have the inputs but you will also require a certain level of knowledge to apply the inputs correctly.”
He said the Foundation would roll out a new scheme to fund research in agriculture for students pursuing Masters Degree programmes, as a way of whipping up interest in the sector and encouraging the pursuit of agriculture as a business rather than a past time.
The Foundation would also support the university to introduce the model farm concept currently being practiced by agric students of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, to enable students of Legon to have a practical feel of what they learn while earning an income from it at the same time.
Mr. Awuni urged students of the college to come up with proposals on agricultural projects to enable Finatrade to support them.
He said the foundation of agriculture in the country was very weak, stressing that, after 50 years, the country should have been able to produce enough to feed itself.
Mr. Awuni, who is to be inducted into the College’s Council this year, advised the college and other agricultural institutions against looking up always to the central government for funding of its activities urging it to go into public-private partnerships.
He said the Foundation’s financial support to needy students annually would be increased from GHC 600 per student to GHC 700 per student.
Professor Benjamin Ahunu, Provost of the college, noted that for about six years, Finatrade had been supporting not only agricultural students of the university but students from the three other public universities.
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