An Information Technology graduate from Maamobi has addressed a public appeal to Ghanaian businessman and philanthropist Dr Ibrahim Mahama, asking for financial support to pursue postgraduate studies abroad after exhausting every other funding avenue available to him.
Jonathan Aweh, raised in Maamobi and shaped by his years in Accra, describes a life built on perseverance. His mother sustained the family through bread selling and petty trading in Pigfarm while single-handedly putting six children through senior high school. Aweh himself funded his university education by working in construction and taking on whatever honest work he could find, eventually graduating with a degree in Information Technology.
His path was marked by personal tragedy. On the day he sat his final university examination, his father died, a loss he describes in his letter as both an ending and a sharpened sense of responsibility.
In 2024, Aweh received an offer to study abroad but could not accept it due to a lack of funds. He says he has since applied for scholarships, approached organisations, and explored every possible option without success.
“I am not asking for a handout,” he writes. “I am asking for a chance. A chance to build, to grow, and to give back.”
Dr Ibrahim Mahama, who runs major cultural and commercial enterprises across Ghana, has a documented record of investing in young Ghanaian talent. Earlier this year, he pledged to cover the full academic costs of Melchizedek Adio Baafawiise, the 13-year-old physics prodigy admitted to the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).
Aweh’s appeal joins a broader national conversation about the financial walls that block qualified Ghanaians from advancing their education. Ghana’s gross tertiary enrolment rate stands at 22 percent, well below the 2030 target of 40 percent, with tens of thousands of eligible students locked out of further study each year due to funding gaps.
Whether Dr Mahama responds publicly or privately, Aweh’s letter puts a human face on a systemic problem that government, business, and civil society have yet to fully resolve.
