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Local agencies can fund your education

24th May 2008; The Monitor by Kelvin Kizito Kiyingi

Local agencies can fund your education
Sarah Najjemba was a struggling private student at Makerere University Business School (Mubs). She was an orphan, looking after her five siblings aged between 11 and 23 years, all in school.

“I used to work and study at the same time so my grades were deteriorating, but when I got a scholarship my grades improved to such an extent that I obtained an upper second degree,” she recalls.

Najjemba, now a sales executive with Monitor Publications Limited, obtained a Bachelor of Business Administration (Purchasing and Supplies Management), thanks to the Madhvani Foundation (MF) Scholarship.

For Barbara Atiti, 29, who obtained a MF scholarship last year, the circumstances were different. Her father had retired from the public service and he had many obligations his family is large with several young ones who had not yet completed A-level.

“So the thinking was that since I had reached university the rest of the resources should be used to cater for my younger siblings and this inspired me to look for alternative sources of funding since my performance in my third year of study was good at the time of applying for the scholarship,” she said.

Atiti, a final year civil engineering student from Kyambogo University, learnt of the MF scholarship after she joined Excel Construction Limited, where she is working as an industrial trainee.

“I applied when they advertised in the newspapers and I waited and I kept checking in the papers and I found that I was short listed for the interviews.”

The Madhvani Foundation started offering scholarships in 1962, but it stopped in the early 1970s when President Idi Amin (RIP) expelled Asians from Uganda, according to Mr Krishna Iyengar, secretary of the Foundation. The scheme was revived in the 2003 and since then 448 scholarships worth Sh1.4 billion have been awarded.

The objective is to help needy students, who would otherwise be unable to find university fees, according to Mr Henry Kyemba, a board member and chairman scholarship sub-committee.

The scholarships, which only pay for university fees, are awarded to students who have already started university education or have completed a first degree. Why?

“Because we want to be assured of soundness and seriousness of the students their grades must be good which demonstrates they are trying their level best despite the challenges they are facing. We are looking for total commitment of the student to study,” Kyemba explained.

Madhvani Foundation is one of the many examples of funding for university local education in Uganda. The funding agencies or organizations have got special preferences. Some fund both undergraduate and graduate programmes, while others fund only one of the two categories.