MTC Hands Over Bursaries to 7 polytechnic of Namibia student

MTC Bursaries polytechnic of Namibia student

Seven Information Technology (IT) students from the Polytechnic of Namibia (PON) on Monday received bursaries from Mobile Telecommunications Company (MTC) valued at N$500 000.

The bursaries are to finance undergraduate students for Information Technology as well as Electronic Engineering. Minister of Education, Dr David Namwandi. said this assistance will make a huge difference in the lives of students, and in the quest for Namibia to become a knowledge based economy as envisioned in Vision 2030 and urged other stakeholders, both private and public, to follow suit. "We must ensure that the society is supplied with people who are literate, skilled, articulate, innovative, informed and proactive and together we must recognise and award excellence. MTC is not obliged to give scholarships, they are doing it on their own will and I appeal to members of various sectors of the economy to also take learners and students under your wings because the countries development depends on skilled labour, said Namwandi.

Namwandi noted that funding for higher education traditionally relied on government subsidies, and that education needs are so enormous to be catered for by the government alone. "We require a focused, concerted effort and contributions by all stakeholders to the higher education arena in order to create a better and more developed country," he said.

He encouraged students to use every opportunity to gain knowledge and equip themselves on being the best they can be, and also to continue to rise above the crowd and continue to reap the set reward of success. "Consider yourselves fortunate, do your best and succeed. I know having coming this far, you will not let your sponsors, your partners, yourselves or your country down. I don't want you to live with a general certificate of emptiness, I want you to live with a proper qualification that will distinguish you from the others" Namwandi said.

Meanwhile, MTC's Chief Human Capital & Corporate Affairs Officer, Tim Ekandjo, advised recipients to go out there, show their brilliance and to also work for other companies when MTC cannot accommodate them. "We would pay for students study fees in full and if MTC cannot accommodate them with a job once they have graduated, we allow them to go and work for any other company including our competitors, because whoever they go and work for other than us, will be in the best interest of Namibia, so we invest in the country and not just in MTC," said Ekandjo.

According to Ekandjo, MTC has been giving scholarships to students with excellent results over the past nine years in the field of IT and the majority of them are productively employed by MTC and are making their contribution to the national economy of this country.