Stallion Empowerment Initiative (SEI), the charity arm of Stallion Group, recently celebrated its 50 years of impacting lives in Nigeria with the introduction of scholarship programmes for deserving students of Premium Technical High School and Premium Primary School, both in Warri, Delta State.
With the aim of encouraging them to set high goals for a bright future, the awards were presented to 21 beneficiaries at a felicitation ceremony witnessed by a gathering of students. The inaugural scholarship was given to the best-performing students across various classes for the 2019/2020 academic session.
The three broad categories of scholarships introduced were Sunil Vaswani Merit Scholarships, with 100 per cent full tuition fee waiver for the best student of Primary 6 to Senior Secondary (SS) 3; Principal’s Merit Scholarship, with 75 per cent tuition waiver for the second best student; and Roy Tabet Merit Scholarship, with 50 per cent tuition scholarship for the third best student.
Speaking on the gesture, the co-founder of SEI, Ms. Sarina Vaswani, stated that the initiative strongly believed that investments in human capital through education and skills could lead to a positive future for generations.
“SEI, therefore, supports youth to further their education into secondary school and university. We believe our school programmes and supplies can help prepare students into adulthood.SEI supports Premium Technical High School, Warri, with 1,746 students and the two Premium Primary School with 2,000 students,” Vaswani said.
Also commenting, the principal, Mr. Joseph Sido, said the schools offered qualitative secondary education for children in the neighbouring communities, adding that the students were imparted with technical training so that they are absorbed in industries like Premium Steel or other ancillary industries in that region.
Statistically, the sub-Saharan Africa region has a rough estimate of 64 per cent illiteracy, the highest in the world. With this in mind, SEI said it has been working towards building Nigeria as a benchmark in improving the access and opportunities available for young individuals, with the goal of improving the attendance rates for schools in the region and encouraging the meritorious with the right support so that they become harbingers for development in the region.
Interestingly, 71 per cent of the students chosen on merit were female, further attesting that SEI supports schools that provide a very conducive environment for the girl child, considering that female literacy continues to be an ongoing challenge in Nigeria owing to cultural and religious disparities.
“Stallion Empowerment Initiative believes that these are core challenges society will continue to tackle in the future and, therefore, it is essential to set the precedence of gender equality in Nigeria. By creating an open environment for girls to attend schools and supporting them with educational grants and scholarships, the organisation is propagating gender equality.”
