AngloGold Ashanti Obuasi Community Trust Fund has since 2019 disbursed a total of GH¢180,000 from its Tertiary Education Grants Scheme to support about 120 brilliant but needy students in its operational areas.
Mr Elijah Adansi-Bonah, Chairman of the Steering Committee of the AGA Community Trust Fund, made this known at a ceremony at Obuasi were scholarships to the third batch of 40 students who are benefiting from the scheme this year were presented.
A total of 80 continuing students had already benefited from the first and second disbursements for the year.
The scheme, which was initiated by AGA in 2019, aimed at enhancing access to tertiary education and reducing the dropout rate from Senior High Schools to the tertiary level within the Mine’s catchment area.
So far, 42 students from the Obuasi Municipality have benefited from the scheme whiles 30 tertiary students from the Obuasi East District are also benefiting.
Again, 24 students each from the Amansie Central District and Adansi North District have also been awarded scholarships under the scheme.
Mr Adansi-Bonah, who is also the Municipal Chief Executive for Obuasi said the Scheme was now focusing more on students who were pursuing mining-related courses in tertiary institutions.
“Hither to, most of the beneficiaries were students from the training colleges but the Steering Committee decided to also consider more of the students who are doing mining-related courses so that they can have a future in the mining sector after graduation,” he stated.
He called for greater collaboration between Anglo-Gold Ashanti and the people of Obuasi to help develop the area.
Mr Adansi-Bonah advised the beneficiaries who were made up of 22 males and 18 females, to take their studies seriously and be good ambassadors of the Scholarship scheme and Obuasi in general.
Mr Emmanuel Baidoo, Senior Manager Sustainability at AngloGold Ashanti, in an address read for him, said the Community Trust existed to make investments in a way that would contribute meaningfully to the development of communities in the Adansi enclave.
This, he said, would help promote a healthy relationship between the Mines and the communities.
Nana Owi-Asamoah, Dunsinasehene of Fomena who represented the Adansihene, thanked the AGA Community Trust Fund for prioritising education development in the area.
He appealed to the management of the Trust to extend the scholarship to students from the area who were pursuing courses at the Masters’s and Doctoral levels.
Nana Owi-Asamoah also urged the Steering Committee to extend the scholarship to cover medical students.
