By Michael Kofi Kenetey
The Ghana Oil Palm Development Limited (GOPDC), in the Kwaebibirem Municipality of the Eastern Region, has offered educational scholarships worth ¢230,000 to 51 selected tertiary students in the municipality.
In an interview with GBC Sunrise FM, the Community Relations Manager, Andrew Andoh, revealed that the gesture is part of their corporate social responsibilities. Mr. Andoh noted that the scholarships used to be awarded to Senior High School students; however, the emergence of the Free SHS in 2019 has made them shift focus to tertiary students.
According to him, some continuing tertiary students are already beneficiaries of the scholarship, and the 51 are the new additions. He called on everyone to rally support for the company for the socio-economic development of the enclave and the country as a whole. Mr. Andoh spoke about the criteria for selecting students for the scholarship.
The beneficiaries showed appreciation to the company for the kind gesture and promised to make good use of the scholarship with the assurance that they would take their studies seriously in order to reciprocate what GOPDC has done for them.
In all, 17 communities benefited from the scholarship, which included Asuom, Kwae, Mintah, Okumaning, Kusi, and Takrowase, among others.
GOPDC is a member of the Siat Group of Belgium, which is an integrated agro-industrial company specialising in the cultivation of oil palm and the extraction of crude palm oil and palm kernel oil. GOPDC has about 21,000 hectares of oil palm plantations at its Kwae and Okumaning Estates in the Eastern Region, of which about 13,000 have been developed with six thousand out growers.
In total, there are over one million 1,860,000 oil palm trees spread over a radius of 30 kilometer, creating a direct or indirect income for over 50 thousand people.
