Co-operative Bank announces 655 scholarship opportunities for bright and needy students

Co-operative Bank Chief Executive Officer Gideon Muriuki

The Co-operative Bank of Kenya has announced 655 scholarship positions for bright but needy students across the country.

Of the 655 new scholarships to the incoming Form One students, 420 will be awarded by the bank’s Regional Delegates’ Forums and the remaining 235 scholarships, at 5 per county, will be awarded by the County Governments in all the 47 counties, the bank’s Group Managing Director and CEO Dr Gideon Muriuki said Tuesday.

“The Board of Directors of the Co-operative Bank is pleased to announce a new annual intake of 655 bright but needy students across the country to join the Co-op Foundation Scholarship Scheme in 2016”, part of the statement read.

Additionally, the bank will be educating a total of 130 students, selected from the top performing beneficiaries of the secondary school scholarships, through their entire university education.

 After this year 2016 intake, the Co-operative Bank will have provided free education to 4,250 young Kenyans, of whom 4,110 will have gone through secondary education and 140 university studies.

When added to the number of students educated since the year 2007 when the Co-opBank Foundation was started, the bank will in the next two years have provided education to over 5,000 bright students who otherwise would not have been educated.

The scholarships are awarded on merit to promising but needy students from all regions of Kenya.

"Our scholarship beneficiaries are selected at the grassroots level by Co-operative Societies across the country through a well-established national delegates system. Co-operative Societies, who are the face of Kenya, identify well-performing students from disadvantaged backgrounds and bring these names into a regional forum where delegates debate and select the most deserving cases. At the banks' head office, our role is to process payments to the schools and monitor the students’ performance through the four years in secondary school. The top 28 in the Form Four examination each year are granted an additional full scholarship for their university education,” Dr. Muriuki added.

The CEO observed that education is one of the most expensive items in any household budget and yet has the highest potential to liberate people from poverty.

"Unless corporate institutions and all people of goodwill come together to support initiatives within the education sector, brilliant but needy Kenyans will never realise their full potential. Being poor does not mean that one isn't bright or has no potential. A large number of Kenyans holding positions of responsibility today were educated with loans from the Co-operative Movement.  It is for this reason that the Co-operative Bank, being the premier co-operative institution in Kenya, has taken the lead in this area,” Dr Muriuki said.

Co-operative Bank provides full school fees scholarships for the entire four years of secondary education. University scholarships are awarded to the best performing students from each region.

The scholarship program was launched in 2007.

At the same time, the bank also announced that they had secured a Sh10.7 billion long-term financing facility with International Finance Corporation.

The bank will apply the proceeds of the facility mainly to finance export-oriented enterprises and other institutions, who need financing support in foreign exchange.