Despite the difficult bsuiness environment currently facing the country, management of Stanbic Bank Ghana have kept their promise to support the Kwame Nkurumah University of Science and Technology’s (KNUST) Support One Needy Student, One Laptop (SONSOL) project. The bank presented the final batch of 50 laptops to aid in teaching and learning of STEM-related subjects, especially for females at the university.
The Head-Brand and Marketing at Stanbic Bank, Mawuko Afadzinu, presented the laptops to the school and said the bank is particulalry encourgaed by the impact the project is making in young men and women’s lives. Mr. Afadzinu said
“One of the things that has driven us is all the stories we hear about the impact and the real significant difference this intervention is making in the lives of very brilliant young men and women. Beyond the donation of laptops, we’ve created a community for the beneficiaries (most of whom are ladies) to engage, mentor, support and link them to opportunities which will ultimately impact their academic journeys, and also help them achieve their dreams of becoming the next generation of women in STEM.”
Vice Chancellor of KNUST, Professor Rita Akosua Dickson, was extremely appreciative of the gesture. She recounted how Stanbic’s support has helped hundreds of underprivileged students to obtain the education they deserve since the abrupt nationwide shift to digital learning in 2020.
She said: “We are overwhelmed by love – and honestly, I don’t know where I read it from, but I can recollect a saying that says ‘don’t be too quick to introduce who your friends are, wait for hard times’; and what Stanbic is doing today, for me, confirms that even in the midst of hardship and all the drama we have been through in terms of the economic landscape – if in the midst of all that you can still bend beyond yourselves and show such great love to the university, to the students, to the ladies who without this kind of assistance would not have the best education, we are overwehelmed”.
She further added: “I recollect vividly when COVID knocked on our doors, we had to engage in an all-inclusive form of education and a hybrid system that enables us to have both in-person and virtual classes. This has now come to stay, and we are only able to do this with such formidable support from Stanbic. And honestly, whether we like it or not, the technologically-advanced space that we find ourselves in will continue to move from one level to amother – so we can’t run away from this, and it all comes back to the use of gadgets. So, we are just full of gratitude to Stanbic, that in this journey you didn’t leave us in the middle and ask us to swim our way back; you have kept faith with us, you have kept to your promises – and even through thick and thin, the difficult times you found yourselves in, you kept us in focus; and this means a lot to us as a university.”
The SONSOL project is an initiative of the Vice Chancellor of KNUST, which aims at supporting needy students with laptops to help them pursue their university education. Stanbic Bank Ghana, as part of its commitment to make dreams possible through high-impact interventions including education for the people of Ghana, pledged to donate 200 laptops over a period of 3 years in support of the project.
