MTN Ghana launches Alumni Network for Bright Scholarship beneficiaries

The MTN Ghana Foundation has launched the MTN Bright Scholars Network to bring together more than 1,200 past beneficiaries of its Bright Scholarship programme.

The scholarship programme provides financial and other support to brilliant but needy Ghanaian students to enable them to pursue tertiary education.

Since 2017, the programme has supported 1,222 students, including about close to 300 beneficiaries who graduated with first-class honours.

The network is expected to facilitate knowledge sharing, mentorship, job opportunities and community development projects among the alumni.

The launch was held in Accra on Thursday, August 13, as part of activities marking MTN Ghana’s 30th anniversary.

In a speech read on his behalf, MTN Ghana CEO Stephen Blewett said the network would help beneficiaries support one another beyond their scholarship years.

“An alumni association is how you turn 1,220 separate stories into one story with one thing none of you has alone, which is reach,” he said.

Mr Blewett said MTN would continue to support the scholarship programme, noting that the MTN Ghana Foundation had committed to providing 1,500 scholarships over three years.

Also speaking at the ceremony, Dr Anita Payne, who was inaugurated as President of the MTN Bright Scholars Alumni Network, said the new leadership would work to build a united and supportive community.

“As we begin this new chapter, our vision is to build an alumni community that remains connected, supportive, and committed to giving back,” she said.

Other executives inaugurated were Steven Adom Asare, Vice President; Jessica Ayorkor Laryea, Secretary; and Isaac Amponye, Organizer.

Speaking to ModernGhana News on the sidelines of the event, the Acting General Manager for Sustainability and Shared Value at MTN Ghana, Georgina Asare Fiagbenu, said the network would provide a platform for alumni to share knowledge, mentor young people and contribute to community development.

“Most especially, also mentor other young people, bring them along, share job opportunities that they chance upon, and also do development projects,” she said.

On her part, a 2019 MTN Bright Scholarship recipient, Mavis Essandoh, said the financial support enabled her to concentrate on her studies and later transition into a career as a junior civil engineer.