By Ikeoye Oyetoro

MoneyGram International is offering full scholarships to ten brilliant but less privileged young women in public universities to mark the 50th Independence Anniversary of Nigeria.

Regional Director, MoneyGram (Anglophone West Africa), Ms. Funmi Omitowoju, disclosed this during a press briefing in Lagos. She noted that the company is focusing on education for the young women because of its exponential benefits to the community, siblings, spouses, children and the society at large.

According to her, MoneyGram for a start will be selecting best female less privileged student in six public Universities across Nigeria at their 100 level examination for accountancy, Banking & Finance, Mass Communications, Engineering and Medical Sciences.
She added that the company will be offering  four, five or six years scholarship to each student depending on the course of study and a total sum of one million naira that covers tuition, accommodation and books will also be provided to the University to cater for the qualified students.

Omitowoju disclosed that Presentation of scholarship to qualified students will take place every session and will hold at designated venues in each of the chosen states saying this year presentation holds in November.

“Cheque for tuition and accommodation will be made available to University directly while that of books will be given to student and to ensure that selected students take their studies seriously, poor performance automatically disqualifies a candidate as candidate must make an average of 3.0 CGPA to continue to benefit from the scheme,” she said.

In the same vein, the Marketing Manager, MoneyGram (Anglophone West Africa), Mr Gabriel Wilson, noted that Nigerians has a lot of potential that are yet to be utilised therefore MoneyGram will continue to support the less privilege through various Community Social Responsibilities ranging from school visits and donations to widows all across Nigeria. “We are passionate about this responsibility and we will continue to collaborate with our partners to ensure that we add quality to human’s life.”

Speaking further, Awojobi Olakunle who represented Union Bank said, they are happy to collaborate with MoneyGram as the scholarship award to the less privilege women is an avenue to give back to the society and make contributions to the development of girl-child education.

Also, the Product Manager, MoneyGram (UBA), Stella Okojie said the initiative is a good one and  UBA is supporting the idea of woman education empowerment. She however stressed that more beautiful ideas will be coming in the nearest future to ensure that charity activities in the industry continues.