Over 200 tertiary students including freshmen and continuing students in various tertiary institutions across the country have received financial support from the Member of Parliament for Asuogyaman Thomas Ampem Nyarko.
The MP issued a Ghc300,000.000 cheque to support the first batch of level 200 tertiary students from his constituency to pay their fees.
This kind gesture is in fulfilment of his pledge to support parents and needy but brilliant students within his constituency who find difficulties in paying their fees at the beginning of every academic year.
The office of the MP receives hundreds of applications from both fresh and continuing students of various tertiary institutions to access his fee-paying support programme.
This year, at least four (4) applicants were selected from each of the 37 Electoral Areas in the Constituency to ensure fairness and equitable access.
Some of the beneficiary students have gained admission to pursue Law, Nursing, Engineering programmes, Medicine and other programmes but were struggling to mobilize funds to pay their fees and hostel bills.
The gesture which comes very early for the students to make payments delayed following the struggles the MP went through in getting access to his share of the assembly’s common fund which was allegedly denied by the former DCE for Asuogyaman Mavis Opokua Akunnor.
In an interview with the media after a short ceremony to disburse the amount to the students, the MP assured of mobilizing more funds to enhance the intervention due to its impact of ensuring that lots more SHS students transition into tertiary institution to pursue various professional career programmes.
“Thanks be to God I have received positive feedback from some hotels and private companies who are willing to support this good initiative, I had an engagement with them telling them about the need to invest in your education and the feedback from them is positive so we are going to expand the project to enable a lot more people to be supported with fees in the coming months”.
“All I want from you beneficiaries is to not let us down, your parents, families and the constituency down. Going forward, this will be in merit because we need to see evidence of good results. Some people are equally brilliant but didn’t get access to these funds, especially the continuing students you will need to add your transcripts to your applications next time for us to know that you are learning and making progress”.
Some of the beneficiaries who spoke to Channel One News expressed appreciation to Thomas Ampem Nyarko for his intervention.
“Tertiary education has become very expensive in the country so getting part payment of our fees will go a long way to augment the efforts of our parents. We are indeed grateful to our MP Hon. Thomas Ampem Nyarko for always coming in to support us”, Azi Salvation a beneficiary remarked.
Thomas Ampem Nyarko condemned the former District Chief Executive for Asuogyaman Mavis Opokua Akunnor for blocking the initiative last year after refusing to sign a cheque issued by the MP to access funds from the MP shares of the common fund to support payment of fees of some needy tertiary students.
Thomas Ampem Nyarko indicated that the NDC’s free tuition policy for first-year Tertiary students is a step to ensure many students after SHS enrol in tertiary education and that the policy will help him channel his support to continuing students in his Constituency.
Source: Citinewsroom.com
