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When Nancy Agyeman Duah’s name was announced as the Overall Best Graduating Student of Ho Technical University’s Class of 2025, it marked the culmination of years of determination, sacrifice, and perseverance.

She had graduated with a CGPA of 3.96 out of 4, earning a Bachelor of Technology in Hospitality Management and finishing at the top of her university.

Behind that remarkable achievement, however, was a family that had worked hard to keep her education on track, a father who repairs engines, and a mother who sells sachet water.

Nancy’s journey from Abuakwa in the Ashanti Region to the top of her graduating class is also a story of how financial support can change the course of a young person’s education.

As MTN Ghana marks 30 years of operations, its experience is one of the stories that reflects the impact of its investment in education and young people.

Pure water and engine grease

Nancy grew up in Abuakwa, where her parents worked hard to provide for their family. Her father is a mechanic, while her mother sells sachet water. Their livelihoods were modest, but they remained determined to give their children opportunities through education.

As Nancy progressed through school, however, the cost of education became increasingly difficult for the family to manage.

By the time she entered university, the financial pressure had become acute. Tuition and other expenses were a constant concern, while her parents, now in their later years, had limited financial capacity to shoulder the cost of her tertiary education.

But they never asked her to give up. Instead, they encouraged her to remain focused and trust that things would work out. ‘My parents always encouraged me not to worry about finances but to trust that God would provide. Although the burden was heavy at times, I stayed committed to my studies,’ she said.

With that encouragement, Nancy enrolled at Ho Technical University to pursue a Bachelor of Technology in Hospitality Management.

She remained focused on her studies, determined not to allow her family’s financial circumstances to define her academic journey.

A scholarship at the right time

Nancy first heard about the MTN Bright Scholarship through a friend’s group chat. Her brother-in-law also encouraged her to apply.

She did, and when the news came that she had been selected, it became a defining moment for her family. ‘Between my tears of joy and my mom’s screams of thanksgiving, I can truly say it was one of the best days for my family and me,’ she said.

For Nancy, the scholarship meant more than financial assistance. It eased the pressure on her parents and allowed her to concentrate more fully on her education without the constant worry over how her fees and other academic expenses would be met.

The support also gave her a sense of affirmation that her efforts and potential were worth investing in. ‘The MTN Bright Scholarship was more than a scholarship for me; it was a bridge between potential and possibility,’ she said.

The support came through the MTN Bright Scholarship, which was launched in 2017 to provide brilliant but needy students with the opportunity to complete tertiary education. For Nancy, the results of that opportunity would eventually go far beyond simply completing university.

Finishing at the top

Nancy graduated in November 2025 as the Overall Best Graduating Student of Ho Technical University’s Class of 2025. Her CGPA of 3.96 out of 4 placed her at the top of the institution, a remarkable outcome for a young woman whose education had once been threatened by financial constraints.

Her achievement also became a source of pride for her parents, whose daily work had helped keep her education alive through difficult times.

From a home sustained by engine repairs and sachet water sales, their daughter had become the best graduating student of her university. For Nancy, the achievement is proof of what can happen when determination is matched with opportunity.

After the cap and gown

Since graduating, Nancy has continued to pursue her ambitions. She has built a beauty business offering hair braiding and lash services, keeping her financially active while preparing for her next goal, a transition into Law.

The experience has strengthened her belief that education can open doors that may initially appear out of reach. She also hopes her journey will encourage other young people facing financial challenges to remain committed to their education. ‘In my community, my story serves as encouragement to younger people who may also face challenges. It shows them that with determination, excellence, and the right support, their dreams are achievable,’ she said.

A story beyond one family

Nancy’s journey is one of the testimonies emerging from MTN Ghana’s 30-year journey. For her family, the significance of the Bright Scholarship was not simply that it helped pay for university. It meant that a daughter whose parents were struggling to meet the rising cost of tertiary education could remain in school, complete her degree, and graduate at the very top of her class.

Her story illustrates the difference that targeted support can make when financial barriers threaten to stand between a young person and their potential. And for Nancy, the achievement is not the end of the journey. It is the foundation for what comes next.

The MTN Bright Scholarship

Since its launch in 2017 to mark MTN Ghana’s 20th anniversary, the Bright Scholarship has supported 1,220 brilliant yet needy students in completing their tertiary education. The scholarship covers tuition, accommodation, a laptop, and a stipend for books and study materials.

Over nine years, the programme has reached students across 18 tertiary institutions nationwide, including the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, the University of Ghana, and the University of Cape Coast, as well as colleges of education and health training institutions.

The programme’s academic outcomes have also been notable. Seventeen Bright Scholars have graduated as valedictorians or best students at their universities, while 299 have graduated with first-class honours, 47 with second-class upper, and 16 with second-class lower honours.

For students like Nancy, those figures represent more than statistics. They represent opportunities, and, in her case, the opportunity to turn the sacrifices of a mechanic and a sachet water seller into a university success story.

Africa contributes less than four per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Yet when the effects of climate change are felt, the continent often pays a disproportionate price through the loss of lives, livelihoods, and critical infrastructure.

Ghana has experienced the devastating consequences of inadequate infrastructure firsthand. The June 3, 2015 floods and fire disaster in Accra claimed more than 150 lives and exposed serious weaknesses in the city’s drainage and urban planning systems. The disaster also raised difficult questions about the adequacy of drainage infrastructure, urban planning and engineering systems in the capital.

As the world intensifies efforts to address climate change, much of the convention focuses on reducing emissions. For Africa, however, adaptation must receive equal attention. The continent needs infrastructure capable of withstanding the effects of climate change that are already being experienced. We must build the infrastructure of resilience: climate-adaptive cities, renewable energy grids, clean water systems, sustainable transport, and food security systems that can withstand the pressures already upon us. Every single one of those is an engineering challenge.

Yet we continue to produce engineers who are not equipped to solve them. We are not educating them in a way that connects their technical training to the realities of the continent they are supposed to serve. If we are serious about Africa’s global relevance and climate accountability, we must confront a deeply uncomfortable truth: Africa’s development cannot be separated from engineering. Yet, the way engineering is taught does not always equip graduates to respond to the continent’s most pressing challenges.

Where Engineering Education Falls Short

‘We are not educating our youth to solve our problems!’ This statement by Prof Fred Mcbagonluri, President of Academic City University, captures a growing concern about the gap between what engineering education produces and what African societies need.

Across much of Africa, engineering education has traditionally focused on applying established solutions. While that knowledge remains important, today’s engineers must also be able to identify unfamiliar problems, understand their social context, and develop practical solutions. They can apply formulae flawlessly.

Yet, many struggle to connect those formulae to the sociological realities of a community without clean water, the ethical dimensions of a procurement decision that affects public safety, or the human factors in a digital system designed for users who have never interacted with technology before. This is not a failure of intelligence. It is a failure of how the discipline is designed and taught.

Consider the entry requirements for engineering programmes in Ghana. They are tight, competitive, and designed to filter. Such requirements can create the impression that only students with exceptional Senior High School grades can succeed in engineering. Yet academic performance at this stage does not always reflect a student’s potential to become a competent engineer. What that assumption misses is that a well-structured introductory engineering education can bring far more students into the pipeline than our current system allows. The gate should be rigorous competence, not prior privilege.

The engineers who will one day design and build flood-resilient drainage systems for communities in Accra, develop affordable solar microgrids for rural areas in the Northern Region, or turn agricultural waste in the Ashanti Region may already be among today’s students. They may be students with low grades in Elective Mathematics or Physics. We are selecting for a narrow band of prior achievement and then wondering why our engineering talent pool is insufficient to meet our massive infrastructure deficit.

What Engineering Education Should Deliver

Real engineering problems, from climate adaptation to digital infrastructure, do not respect disciplinary boundaries. A good engineering education must reflect this reality. It must scaffold learning, building from guided exploration to collaborative application to independent mastery. It must be grounded in context, using case studies and problems that are recognisable and meaningful to the students being taught.

In an African context, engineering ethics cannot be a standalone module to be endured; it must be the lens through which every design decision is examined. Engineering students should study landmark international cases such as the Challenger disaster and the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. But they should examine African experiences including June 3 floods in Accra, Cape Town’s water crises and the use of drones to deliver medical supplies in Ghana. Our students need to see that engineering failure and engineering innovation both happen across this continent, in conditions they recognise, with consequences that affect people like them.

These ideas also inform a textbook I am co-authoring with Professor McBagonluri, An Introduction to Engineering: A Project-Based Approach, which seeks to introduce students to engineering through practical projects and real-world problems, particularly within the African context.

Preparing Engineers for Africa’s Future

There is a recurring conversation in education policy circles about ‘training for the jobs of the future.’ It is usually framed around digital skills, artificial intelligence, and data literacy. These are real and important. But they are not sufficient.

The jobs that Africa needs over the next quarter century will not be limited to digital technologies. The continent will need people capable of designing and building power plants, water treatment facilities, road networks, hospitals, affordable housing, irrigation systems, ports, and manufacturing facilities.

These are the foundations of an economy capable of adding value to Africa’s resources rather than exporting raw materials and importing finished products.

Engineering is central to many of Africa’s development priorities. You cannot have a digital economy without electrical and computer engineers. You cannot have an energy transition without mechanical, chemical, and environmental engineers. You cannot have climate resilience without civil, environmental, and systems engineers. You cannot have trade and regional integration without the logistics, transport, and manufacturing infrastructure that engineers design and build.

When done right, engineering education provides a transferable way of thinking: problem framing, systems thinking, evidence-based decision-making, ethical reasoning, and the discipline to iterate until a solution actually works. These habits of mind are exactly what our public and private sectors need, not just in engineering roles, but in policy, governance, and business leadership.

The Urgency of Now

The urgency is clear. Climate Change will not wait. Neither will Africa’s infrastructure needs or the aspiration of its young population. The demographic dividend of Africa’s young population does not wait. Every year that we train engineers who are not equipped to solve African problems, and every year that we exclude capable students from engineering pathways because our entry systems are too narrow, is a year we cannot recover.

Africa’s development and industrialisation will depend, in part, on the quality of its engineers. That means rethinking how engineering is taught, connecting technical knowledge with the realities of African communities and giving students opportunities to solve real problems from the beginning of their education.

The challenge is not simply to produce engineers. It is to produce engineers equipped to build the resilient, innovative and industrialised Africa the continent needs.