Chris Mbunwe
20 November 2008
Some 545 students and pupils of Ako-Misaje Subdivision of Donga Mantung will enjoy full scholarships worth FCFA 30 million following a fund-raising that recently took place in Nkambe.
The initiator of the Misaje-Ako scholarship fund known as MASSIF, Gentry Calistus Fuh, the Secretary of State in the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Technological Development, said it is in three forms; orientation, encouragement and sensitisation.
Calistus Fuh disclosed that from his research, the human resource development base of Donga Mantung Division has been seriously eroded and succession gap will be in danger because very few children have access to quality education due to abject poverty.
"If this situation remains the same, added to the HIV/AIDS scare, tomorrow, there will be nobody to take over from the aging people and development will greatly be retarded," he said.
The Minister said he has the zeal to reach out to the whole of Donga Mantung and the scholarship will hit FCFA 100 million in the next five years.He said he would bring in friends, colleagues and concerned Donga Mantung elite to contribute to the fund.
To kick-start the project, the Minister donated FCFA 10 million and FCFA 100,000 to the best GCE 'O' Level student from GHS Ndu, Faith Mpara Muwar.The Mayor of Nkambe, Jones Mangoh Tanko, in his welcome speech, said the fact that the Minister has lived up to his campaign promises; there is hope for the Donga Mantung students.
He regretted that whenever Government wants to recruit people into the civil service, Donga Mantung sons and daughters are always not found on the lists."When you come to Donga Mantung, the situation of Misaje-Ako becomes more hopeless and precarious. In the last recruitment of primary school teachers, nobody was recruited from these two subdivisions," he said.
On his part, one Achidi, who donated over FCFA 300,000 to the scholarship fund, thanked Fuh for championing education in the area. He advised the population to invest in agriculture, especially livestock.
Hon. S. N.Tamfu, on his part, chipped in FCFA 200,000, and requested Government to create a university in the Northwest next academic year.The Northwest Delegates of Basic and Secondary Education, Christopher Boma Ndeh and George Awuru Antenne, promised to sustain the scholarship fund.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 The Post. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
