50 young and enterprising Ghanaians are the lucky beneficiaries of the 2014/2015 Tullow Group Scholarship Scheme (TGSS) to study at the post-graduate level in the United Kingdom, Ireland and France.
Under the scheme, the leading independent oil producer in Africa spends about $2.7million on the 50 beneficiaries each year, covering tuition, travel, warm clothes, monthly allowances and baggage allowance for training in oil and gas in selected universities in above-mentioned countries.The beneficiaries’ courses of study include Water and Environmental engineering, Marine Spatial Planning, Bio-technology and Business Enterprise, Journalism, Media and Communication, Law and Corporate Social Responsibility.
The students took part in interviews and group assessments after rigorous selection process by the British Council, Ghana which manages the TGSS.
Speaking at the event, the General Manager of Tullow Ghana, Charles Darku, stated that Tullow’s aim of bringing long lasting sustainable growth to the oil and gas sector and the Ghanaian economy as a whole remains unchanged.
The investment in the education sector through the scholarship scheme is designed to distribute some of the benefits from the oil resources through a competitive selection process to positively impact as many Ghanaian households as possible, according to him.
Mr. Darku said; “In 2012 when this scheme was launched after initially piloting with 24 Ghanaians drawn from the public sector, we set out to support post-graduate studies relevant to the oil and gas industry as well as other sectors that contribute to economic diversification.
This, in my opinion is largely being achieved in many ways, particularly through the contribution of Tullow to the value supply chain sector of the country. I am also happy to note that Ghana remains the largest beneficiary of the scheme which is run out of nine countries.”
On the future of TGSS, he said that in response to feedback received from some major stakeholders of the scheme, new programmes at the pre-tertiary and tertiary levels will be introduced from the next academic year to broaden the scope and reach of the scheme, and thereby further enhance its benefit to the country.
The Minister of Energy & Petroleum, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, who was the Guest of Honour commended Tullow for instituting the scheme and called on other companies in the energy and petroleum sector to emulate the laudable initiative.
He said “Four years into the roll out of the TGSS, I can proudly say that government institutions that have benefited from it are better off today as a result of the knowledge and expertise that alumni of the program have brought to bear in our Ministries.
My wish as a member of Government is to see a lot more oil companies committing equal resources towards developing the knowledge base of the industry, even if just at the local level.”
In a speech read on her behalf by the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service, Charles Aheto-Tsegah, the Minister for Education, Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyeman added her voice to the commendation of Tullow for not only instituting the scheme, but also sustaining and maintaining its quality.
Ahead of the event, the Chief Executive of Tullow Oil plc, Aidan Heavey, commented: “The Tullow Group Scholarship Scheme, now in its fourth year, is helping to create a legacy of academic and technical expertise, supporting students to gainemployment and bring their enhanced capacity to their countries’ Oil & Gas industry.
The scheme aims to address industry skills gaps and national capacitydevelopment requirements, and demonstrates our commitment to the countries where we operate.”
Annually, the TGSS awards 110 full scholarships to citizens of Ghana, Uganda, Gabon, Kenya, Ethiopia, Mauritania, Cote d’Ivoire, French Guiana and Bangladesh out of which 50 are awarded to Ghanaians. To date, 174 Ghanaians have benefitted from the scheme.
African Eye News
