The Ghana Cocoa Board has stated that they will be terminating the provision of scholarships from their Scholarship Scheme for students in need. The COCOBOD Scholarship Fund was implemented under President Kwame Nkrumah’s regime served to finance tuition, examination, boarding and feeding fees for wards of cocoa farmers in Senior High School Levels. The Scheme will now be focused on infrastructural development according to the Board.
The funds generated from the Scholarship Scheme will now be used to construct primary schools in poor regions where cocoa is grown to help in the provision of basic quality education for all.
The change in the use of the funds generated from the scholarship scheme according to the Ghana Cocoa Board headed by Mr. Peter Mac Manu, is due to the Free Senior High School Policy introduced by the NPP Government in 2017 which provides free tuition for all students in the Senior High Level in Ghana. The COCOA BOARD EDUCATION TRUST has now been created to help in providing the necessary infrastructure for quality education in deprived cocoa growing communities in Ghana.
These were some few words from Mr. Peter Mac Manu, the Head of the Ghana COCOBOD Scholarship Scheme and a former Chairman of the New Patriotic Party – “With the advent of the free SHS by the Akufo-Addo administration, it’s time for us to adapt and evolve. The COCOBOD Scholarship Scheme, while a notable and valuable programme, has naturally lost its core purpose.”
AFRICAN VOICES INTERNATIONAL, FREEDOM IN AFRICA
