Bright but Needy Students to Benefit from M-pesa Foundation

Students who come from poor backgrounds but performed well in the recently released Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) are set to benefit from Safaricom’s M-pesa Foundation Academy.

The students will be admitted in the academy mid next month and this will be the first lot of form one students in the institution since its launch. Selection of the students is still on going and two bright needy students from each of the 47 counties will be privileged to join the academy.

The institution is a Sh.3 billion Education complex that is located along Starehe Boy’s Centre. All selected students will be in a position to receive full sponsorship for the four years of their secondary education.

In the recent years’ companies have been offering needy students with scholarships, raising the bar in Kenya’s corporate social responsibility scene.

Other companies offering bright needy students with such scholarships include Equity Bank, Co-operative Bank, Family Bank, KCB Bank, ARM Cement, KenolKobil and Nestle. This is a relief for children whose parents cannot afford pay for their school fees to get the opportunity of learning like other children from well off backgrounds.

Safaricom Head of Corporate responsibility Sanda Ojiambo said disclosed that the academy is going to be opened officially in February. She added that teachers and other support staff have already been hired.

The M-pesa Foundation Academy has been built in a 50-acre piece of land in Kiambu County. The students will not pay even a single cent for the four years that that they will be learning in the institution.

There have been many cases across the country of bright students who come from very poor families lacking the opportunies of joining secondary schools. Many of them end up working as herds boys or house helps so as to generate money for their school fees.

M-pesa Foundation academy is owned and bankrolled by the M-pesa Foundation which is a charity organization that was established by Safaricom in 2010.

Article by Vera Shawiza.