The Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF) has awarded full scholarships to 45 brilliant but needy female students at the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT), Tarkwa.
The GHS460,000 award is MIIF’s flagship Women from Mining Communities (WomCoM) scholarship scheme, launched in June 2024 as part of MIIF’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives.
The scheme is aimed at empowering academically gifted young women from Ghana’s mining communities to pursue education in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) and mining-related disciplines.
Forty-three beneficiaries of the scholarship received GHS10,000 each to pursue undergraduate programmes while two of the recipients were postgraduate students, who had GHS15,000, covering tuition, accommodation, and other essential academic expenses.
The WomCoM programme received over 100 applications, with 45 successful candidates selected through a rigorous and transparent vetting process, supervised by a five-member Steering Committee comprising representatives from MIIF and UMaT.
Mrs Justina Nelson, the Chief Executive Officer of MIIF, in a speech read on her behalf by the Member of Parliament for Ahafo Ano South-East, Mr Yakubu Mohammed, reaffirmed the Fund’s commitment to gender equity in the extractive sector.
“Our goal is not to provide partial help; we are here to make real impact. Beyond financial support, we are lifting burdens, raising aspirations, and changing narratives in communities that have often been left behind,” she said.
Mrs Nelson lauded the partnership with UMaT under the leadership of Professor Richard Amankwah and expressed gratitude to the Steering Committee for their professionalism and integrity in managing the process since its inception in 2024.
She announced plans to expand the programme to include Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) as part of efforts by MIIF to broaden the scope and impact of the scholarship to impact more women from mining communities.
The MIIF CEO expressed appreciation to corporate institutions, including OmniBSIC Bank, Access Bank, Zenith Bank, First Atlantic Bank, First Bank, and Procus Ghana Limited (makers of Kivo products) for their support to the scheme.
She noted that their contributions showed a new phase of collaboration between MIIF and Corporate Ghana in advancing education and gender equity in the country and supporting national development.
“You were chosen not only for your academic potential but because you embody hope. Strive for excellence and remember you are paving the way for many more girls who will look to you and believe that they too can succeed,” she told the beneficiaries.
She reaffirmed MIIF’s commitment to sustain the WomCoM initiative as a transformative platform for building female capacity across Ghana’s mining value chain and expressed confidence about reaching more beneficiaries through continued support from corporate institutions.
Prof Richard Amankwah, the Vice Chancellor of UMaT, noted that although minerals in the soil would be depleted, the investments in the lives of the people would transcend generations, and have lasting impact thousands of Ghanaians.
He thanked MIIF for the scheme, which was “making great impact” in the lives of the awardees and called for more corporate institutions’ support to the Fund to make it sustainable.