The scheme, supported by TICO’s mother company TAQA Generation International, and the Volta River Authority (VRA) has been running for a decade and has benefited over 500 students from the basic level of education through to the tertiary.
The scheme has so far cost the company over $500,000 with this year’s amounting to about $16,000.
At a ceremony on Thursday to present the cheques to the 105 students, General Manager for TICO, Nana Osafo Adjei Kantanka, announced that the company aside its support for education, health and other social infrastructure provision, would review its interventions.
This he said would be done in collaboration with the Western Regional Coordinating Council, (RCC) the District Assembly, chiefs, opinion leaders and all other relevant stakeholders.
Mr. Osafo Adjei said TICO/TAQA remains committed to improving the lives of the people in its operational area and would not rest on its oars until it sees the desired results.
He said TICO, being the first independent power producer in the country, had cut a niche for itself and a sound foundation for more independent power producers to invest in the energy sector, adding that the company would soon improve on its performance by increasing its power generation capacity to 330 megawatts from the current 220.
According to him, the process to increase TICO’s power generation capacity is on course and the project should commence by the 2nd quarter of 2012 after parliamentary approval.
Three motorbikes amounting to $5,000 were presented to the District Education Directorate to be used for supervision and monitoring purposes to improve the quality of teaching and learning.
The company also rehabilitated a vehicle of the Shama Traditional Council at the cost of about $2,500, whilst the state broadcaster’s (GBC) office in Takoradi was presented with a computer and accessories and a refrigerator all worth about $2,800.
The Deputy Western Regional Minister and former DCE for Shama, Emelia Arthur commended TICO for honouring its corporate social responsibility and asked that the support be extended to include teachers in order to motivate them to offer their best to the pupils.
She challenged beneficiaries of the scholarship to work hard to justify their selection and the confidence reposed in them. She also urged parents of the beneficiaries to compliment the efforts of TICO by sacrificing for their children’s education.
The Deputy Minister requested TICO to allocate a percentage of job placements to locals who have the requisite skills to contribute their quota to the growth of the company.