Commissioner-General of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA,) Mr. George Blankson, has commended the members of Board of Trustees of the Anlo Educational Trust Fund (AETF,) for awarding scholarships to 24 fresh and continuing Senior High School (SHS) students in the 2010 and 2011 financial years in Anlo State in the Volta Region.
The beneficiary students comprising 11 boys and 13 girls are from the Keta SHS, Dabala, Anloga SHS, Keta SHS, Dabala SHS and Afiadenyigba SHS in the Anlo State.
The Fund, which was established in 2010, by Professor P.Y Gadzekpo, also procured and distributed 2,500 exercise books and 14 laptops to some selected basic schools in the Anlo State.
The commissioner-general has therefore promised his outfit’s support to help the Trust to raise more funds in order to increase its support for applicants and educational resources in the Anlo State.
Mr. Blankson, who made this commendation during a mammoth fund-raising party organised by Anlo Educational Trust Fund in Accra recently, called on the beneficiaries to eschew absence and be disciplined in pursuit of their education careers.
Dubbed: “Supporting increased access to quality education: All hands on deck,” this year’s fund-raising event targeted GH¢100,000 (one hundred thousand Ghana cedis).
Since one of the key measures of addressing poverty was education, Mr. Blankson advised the Keta Municipal Assembly and the Anlo Traditional Council to work closely to address the poverty situation in the area through the AETF.
He appealed to the beneficiaries to take their learning seriously in order to maintain the legacy established by their forefathers for the sake of posterity.
The Vice-Chairman of AETF, Mrs. Matilda Fiadzigbey, earlier in her welcoming address, said AETF, the brainchild of the Keta Municipal Assembly and the Anlo Traditional Council, was established in November 2009 to support needy children in Anlo Traditional Area to access quality education yielded a little below GH¢300,000.
To this end, Mrs. Fiadzigby appealed to the heads of industry, politicians and businessmen to support the fund with various sums within the next five years.
She disclosed that the AETF had planned to construct five kindergarten school blocks and computerize six junior high schools in Anlo.
Additionally, she said the fund would award scholarships to 500 students at all levels of the educational ladder in Anlo.
The Municipal Chief Executive of Kate Municipal District Assembly, Mr. Sylvester Tornyeavah, pledged to support the fund with GH¢10,000 every year. He attributed the fallen educational standards in the area to poverty in the area.