FDH Bank plc has contributed K3 million to the Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST) ‘buy a gadget for a needy student’ campaign to enable underprivileged students access quality education through e-learning.
FDH Bank plc Managing Director Dr Ellias Ngalande said during the handover of the cheque on Monday in Blantyre that the bank, through its Corporate Social Responsibility flagship ‘FDH Cares’ is dedicated to creating a sustainable society by supporting various causes in education and health and other important areas.
“We are making this contribution of MK3million to Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST) towards the Buy a Gadget for a MUST Needy Student campaign to enable MUST underprivileged students access quality education under the Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) platforms. As a bank, we are proud to support the growth of these students because they are our future leaders,” said Dr. Ngalande.
He said the partnership between FDH Bank plc and MUST is not a new one as the bank already supports 10 underprivileged students enrolled in various courses at MUST on 5 year scholarships valued at K62.5 million.
“We look forward to seeing this partnership grow and are committed to supporting MUST to grow the next generation of leaders and scientists in Malawi,” said Ngalande.
The Vice Chancellor of MUST, Professor Address Malata hailed FDH Bank plc for the donation saying it will go a long way to support the University.
“We noted that most of our students did not have gadgets to access what is called Emergency Teaching and Learning but also E- Learning overall. We realized that even if we embarked on teaching students through online platforms, we could not make any progress because the majority of the students could not afford to buy a gadget in order to access education through online platforms.”
“We therefore don’t take it for granted that FDH Bank plc who are our partners responded positively to our call for resource mobilization towards the campaign. The need for the gadgets is grave since the Covid-19 pandemic because without the gadgets, no progress would have been made in the provision and access of quality education for all. With the Covid-19 pandemic still in our midst, most students in Malawi especially in the Universities need gadgets to access quality education because they cannot attend face to face classes because of the big numbers,” explained Malata.