Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Deputy Minister of Education, has commended the Volta River Authority (VRA) for instituting educational scholarship for communities affected by their operations.

He said education was very important for accelerating the process of development and therefore he was happy that the VRA was spearheading that process in areas of their operations.

Mr Ablakwa, whose speech was read by Mr Francis Ganyaglo, Deputy Volta Regional Minister, was speaking on the occasion of the VRA Community Development Programme (CDP) Scholarship awards at Akuse in the Eastern Region on Tuesday.

The programme, which was on the theme: “Creating Opportunities for the Next Generation through Education”, was intended to provide opportunities for young men and women to maximize their full potential and contribute to the country’s development.

Mr Ablakwa further lauded the VRA for placing high premium on education and instituting the scholarship for the needy but brilliant students at the Senior High School level.

He said the VRA together with leaders of the various communities had developed programmes as part of the VRA community development schemes such as social infrastructure, support for health care, education, environmental sustainability programme, culture and training.

Mr Ablakwa also urged the VRA to ensure better relationship between the host and the resettled communities.

Mr Kweku Awotwi, Chief Executive of the VRA, who was represented by Mr Isaac Aidoo, Director of Human Resource of the Authority, stated that the Authority on the occasion of its 50th anniversary decided to introduce the scholarship award scheme to support needy but brilliant students from communities affected by their operations.

He said the scheme was initially intended as a one-off programme terminating after its first cycle of operation but that was revised.

He said the VRA after evaluating its Community Development Programmes overtime came out with one significant idea through its dialogue with the communities on how to develop the human resource of those communities through education.

Mr Awotwi noted that for this year CDP scholarship scheme was awarded to 60 students - 46 students from the southern sector of the Authority’s operational areas while the 14 students came from the northern sector.

He said, under the VRA CDP framework document, the authority was to provide continuous support for environmental protection programmes, health, social infrastructure projects, industrial attachment and support for cultural activities.

Mr Awotwi also announced that the VRA would this year partner Safe Water Network (SWN), a non-governmental organization to provide safe and affordable water to several communities along the banks of the Volta River.

He said the community water systems to be founded by the VRA and SWN would form the foundation for a cluster of water systems that the two organisations sought to develop over the next three years for 100 communities in the Volta Basin.

GNA