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A young female Ghanaian student in far-away Morocco has once again made the black star of Africa proud in her academic field. Ms Esther Sena has been awarded the best Student in French for the preparatory course for all foreign students studying in Morocco.

This was possible because of Akufo Addo’s initiative in investing into the French education. What is even more intriguing is that, most of her competitors came from countries which speak French as their first language, unlike our lingua franca. 

This goes to show when our students are given the level playing field deserved them, they can compete with the brightest academic minds globally in all fields. Another side to her success story is the fact that, Ms Sena was awarded a Scholarship from the Ghana Scholarship Secretariat, under the visionary decentralization selection scheme introduced by the current Registrar, Mr Kingsley Agyemang.

The deluge of articles and media content over this particular Registrar’s efforts while serving mother Ghana means that, even those who have only a passing interest in education and especially Foreign Scholarships can rattle off words to describe just how is helping students all over the country.

Mr Kingsley Agyemang has repeatedly been described as a cool, attached personality that appears to favor people over power. One student in the media recently described his shock at the crowd of students he met at the Secretariat premises prior to his interview to attend a language program in Algeria. The man has transformed the place to make it an agency for Ghana, not some in Ghana.

What is more, gone are the days, Ghanaian students were left stranded all over the world with tuition and welfare allowances piled to heap and these young students engaged in all manner of activities to survive in foreign lands, with most of them unable to complete their courses which sent them there. These days the situation is very different, the United Kingdom, Ghana’s no1 educational partner is revived once again its bilateral engagements with the Scholarship Secretariat through many arrangements to absorb undergraduate and postgraduate students into some of its top universities. 

The Secretariat has arranged and resurrected some of its long and previously mismanaged educational commitments with various countries; notable to mention are China, Morocco, Russia, Algeria, Spain, India, Hungary, and Germany. The era where various embassies in Ghana were issuing newsletters to warn off students from making applications with the Secretariat guarantees seems to have lost on us due to the able and efficient managerial skills applied by this current government.

The zeal with which His Excellency President Nana Akuffo Addo also kick started the share of our national cake to all families through his numerous educational interventions during his short time in government deserves a huge commendation from all well-meaning citizens. It must be highlighted that, if the government does not support the vision of provision on all matters related to education, then these successes could not have been achieved. To quote Kofi Annan, “Knowledge is Power, Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family.” A belief our President likewise his Registrar shares.

It is said, “A leader is a person who is never satisfied with even his own work and always look to achieve more.” Take for example efforts by the Secretariat to digitize all its records and generate a labor bank with data of its completed awardees fully recognizable and accessible to potential employers from all across the globe. This comprehensive foresight makes this young Registrar a director of change, a man with a plan that, indeed has transformed an agency that was lost and written off.

With the current leadership firmly steering the academic futures of our bright and most excellent students here and abroad, We believe many more Ms Esther Sena’s will be discovered and Ghana will soon reap all its rewards from the current investments been made into the educational futures of our young men and women.