Twenty four Students from Kitui County have been flagged off to join 1000 students Nation-wide at Pangani girls for Three days induction, Students that have benefitted under the Equity Group Foundation’s Wings to Fly Programme this year.
“Today is your very important day. This day becomes the beginning of your academic journey.This is a community scholarship. It is not a bank scholarship,” explained Mbindyo adding that their focus is on the maximum impact education has in the society.
Equity Bank kitui branch manager Francis Mbindyo said this when he flagged off Kitui’s 2022 class of the Wings to Fly programme students at event held at AIC Kitui Township on Wednesday, 18th January 2023 and Kitui County Deputy Governor Augustine Kanani was the Chief guest at this event.
DG Kanani presided over the function that was attended by beneficiaries, their parents, teachers and board members among others. The beneficiaries were 12 girls and 12 boys who had been chosen because they performed exceptionally well in the 2022 KCPE national examination.
Mbindyo said 24 students in Kitui County had benefitted in the current selection. They are eight from each of the county’s three regions — Kitui, Mwingi and Mutomo that have their own Equity Bank branch.
One of the students speaking to Hopkin Digital thanked the Equity Bank for the scholarship.The One, John Mutai from Makutano primary in Kitui Central Sub-county who scored 391 Said that ” I’m happy for being selected for the scholarship and I promise Equity Bank that I will work extra hard to attain Grade A in KCSE”.
Under the programme, the bank takes students who perform well in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) national examination to the best universities in the world, including Harvard in the United States.
Kitui DG Kanani announced that Dr. Malombe’s Government is committed to support needy students from across the county through the Pro-poor program whose public participation is scheduled on thursday at the village level and on Friday at the ward level this week.
In the 2022/2023 supplementary budget, the county has allocated sh. 120 million to support needy learners in efforts to boost education standards in the county.
“As a county we are rolling out the pro-poor Programme tomorrow. We are looking for more funds in the programme. Kitui is a very vast county in terms of space and the number of schools,” Kanani said.
The coveted national programme is a partnership between Equity Bank, Unites States Aid International (USAID), MasterCard Foundation and other partners. It sponsors the bright students from poor families through secondary school and university education.
Thousands of children have gone through the Equity Foundation scholarship programme, and many have turned out to be successful citizens just because they were able to get the opportunity.
The Wings to Fly scholarship program, an initiative of the Equity Group and Mastercard Foundation (MCF), was established to support secondary education for top performing children from financially challenged backgrounds. With support from other partners, the program offers access to leadership training to previously marginalized children in all counties.
