The Foundation is committing $86.6 million to work in collaboration with four new African university partners to educate talented, yet economically disadvantaged, young people through its Scholars Programme.
These institutions join the global network of 21 partners in the Scholars Programme, including Ashesi University College in Ghana, the first African University to partner with the Foundation in 2012.
The new partnerships announced today include: Makerere University, Uganda; University of Pretoria (UP), South Africa; Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ghana; and University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa.
This collaboration builds on the Foundation’s growing network of global education partners who are committed to educating Africa’s young leaders who will use their knowledge and skills to lead change in their communities and contribute to meaningful transformation across the continent.
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, the University of Pretoria and Makerere University have already opened their doors to their first cohorts of MasterCard Foundation Scholars, while the University of Cape Town is expected to welcome its first cohort in January 2015.
“I feel the itch to learn,” said Yvonne Sihle Mashaba, a MasterCard Foundation Scholar majoring in Environmental Economics at the University of Pretoria. “I want to acquire knowledge that will help me fulfill my dream of ending poverty and unemployment around the world.”
“The MasterCard Foundation is excited to have these four new partners joining the Program,” said Reeta Roy, President and CEO of The MasterCard Foundation at the Talloires Network Leaders Conference said: “These universities are aligned with the Foundation’s vision of developing Africa’s next-generation leaders who will apply their ingenuity and empathy to drive progress in their communities and countries.”
These African universities are part of a global initiative. The MasterCard Foundation Scholars Programme is a 10-year, $500 million Programme that hopes to inspire young people to lead change through education. Scholars receive holistic financial, social, academic and leadership development support to create pathways for them to transition to jobs, entrepreneurial activities or further education.
By the end of the Programme, about 75 percent of the Scholars will be girls and young women. The Program is significant at a time when global investments in education have dropped by 10 percent over the last two years, putting the achievement of existing and future education goals at risk – particularly for young women and girls.
“The pride of a higher education has created in me the urge to give back to society,” said Maame Kwamah Otsieku Baah, a MasterCard Foundation Scholar studying at KNUST in Ghana. “I believe that even if I cannot change the world, I can lead the change. True success can only be the measure of the value I add to the lives of others.”
Maame Kwamah Otsieku Baah and Kofi Ohene biographies below:
Maame Kwamah Otsieku Baah , MasterCard Foundation Scholar
Kwamah is a first-year student in Business Administration at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology who aspires to become an international business lawyer. She wants to contribute to national and global development through community service by empowering girls in primary schools. Kwamah has also advocated for policies that will benefit women and entrepreneurs, initiating projects that will help safeguard the rights of vulnerable people.
Dr. Kofi Ohene Owusu-Daaku, Dean of Students
Kofi has spent 34 years, since 1980, in student teaching and administration at KNUST and elsewhere. He has been a Senior Tutor, Hall Master Head of Department, Vice Dean of a medical school and the Acting Dean at University for Development Studies in Tamale, Ghana. Presently, he is a Professor of Anatomy, Physiology, Embryology and Genetics, and the Dean of Students at KNUST. He is also leading the Scholars Program at KNUST as a special assistant to the Vice-Chancellor of the University, Prof. W.O. Ellis. KNUST has 40,000 students.
African Eye News.com