Eight beneficiaries of the MTN Ghana Foundation’s Bright Scholarship programme have graduated from tertiary institutions as top award winners and valedictorians, with the foundation gathering the scholars to mark achievements that it says vindicate its long-running investment in academically gifted but financially constrained students.
The celebration comes as the MTN Ghana Foundation also opens applications for its 2026/2027 scholarship cohort, with 500 places available and a May 31 deadline. Since the scheme’s relaunch in 2018, ten students have emerged as valedictorians and overall best graduates, 520 have attained First Class Honours, and 94 have graduated with Second Class Upper Division.
Among those honoured at the recent gathering was Issahaku Hamdia, a graduate of the University for Development Studies (UDS) who completed a Bachelor of Science in Nursing with distinction. She credited the scholarship not only with resolving her financial pressures but with reshaping her sense of self.
“MTN believed in me before I fully believed in myself,” she said.
Hamdia’s testimony echoed the journeys of the other scholars at the event, several of whom described how near-impossible circumstances preceded their eventual academic distinction.
Adwoa Afriyie Wiafe, Chief Corporate Services and Sustainability Officer of MTN Ghana, addressed the gathering and framed the outcomes not as isolated success stories but as the deliberate result of the foundation’s education strategy. She assured the scholars that MTN’s interest in them extended beyond the completion of their degrees.
Selection panellist Daniel Boateng described this graduating cohort as among the most competitive the programme has ever evaluated, adding that the quality of the applicant pool prompted the foundation to increase the number of scholarships beyond its original plan for that intake.
The Bright Scholarship Programme was launched in 2018, anchored in a pledge MTN made during its 20th anniversary in 2016, and was later expanded in 2021 during the company’s 25th anniversary celebrations. Since inception, the MTN Ghana Foundation has awarded more than 2,000 scholarships to students from basic school level through to tertiary education.
The 2026/2027 programme offers 500 scholarships, with 300 going to students pursuing first degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields and vocational and technical skills training, and 200 supporting professional teachers furthering their education at public universities. Applicants must submit through scholarship.mtn.com.gh before May 31.
For students like Hamdia, the programme’s reach now extends well beyond tuition. The nursing graduate said she plans to encourage students from underserved communities to apply, describing the scholarship as the turning point between abandoning her studies and finishing at the top of her class.
