Equity’s social initiatives have transformed millions of lives, says MD 5

President Uhuru Kenyatta awards Wings to Fly scholarship to Kennedy Mundia on January 16, 2015 during official commissioning of the Equity Foundation, MasterCard foundation and USAID, UKaid, kfw 2000 'wings to Fly' Scholars for the 2015 intake. Wings to Fly scholarship has awarded 10,377 scholarship to needy students for the past five years. PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE | NATION MEDIA GROUP 

In Summary

• He said that through the ‘Wings to Fly’ project, the bank has provided scholarship to more than 10,000 secondary school children.
• Equity and The MasterCard Foundation committed to provide financial skills to 619,500 low income youth and women and provide scholarship for 672 secondary students.
• The bank also runs the Equity Leadership Programme (ELP) which selects the top Wings to Fly Scholars who attain grade ‘A’ and the top boy and top girl in the KCSE examination from all counties and develops them into “world-class leaders who can transform society.”

By OTIATO GUGUYU
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Equity Bank’s financial literacy programme and secondary school scholarship, ‘Wings to Fly’ have surpassed their targets, managing director Dr James Mwangi has said.

The MD said the initiative has benefited thousands of children and millions of youth and women who have gained financial knowledge.

Equity and The MasterCard Foundation committed to provide financial skills to 619,500 low income youth and women and provide scholarship for 672 secondary students.

“With our partners, we have provided financial education to over 1.2 million youth and women across the country, increasing loan uptake four times,” Dr Mwangi (below) said during the 2015 Clinton Global Initiative forum last week in New York.

10,000 BENEFICIARIES

He said that through the ‘Wings to Fly’ project, the bank has provided scholarship to more than 10,000 secondary school children.

Former US President Bill Clinton called on world leaders to stop focusing on what could not be done and try to make a difference.

“Ten years ago I had this idea that we might be able to create a new community, built around the realities of the modern world, where problem-solving requires government, private sector and civil society to work together,” President Clinton told over 1000 world leaders attending the forum.

LEADERSHIP PROGRAMME

The bank also runs the Equity Leadership Programme (ELP) which selects the top Wings to Fly Scholars who attain grade ‘A’ and the top boy and top girl in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examination from all counties and develops them into “world-class leaders who can transform society.”

This year, 12 out of the 65 scholars who proceeded for further studies in global universities are products of the Wings to Fly programme.

Under a scholarship programme valued at more than Sh1.2 billion ($12 million), the scholars will attend top league Universities in the USA, Canada, South Africa, UK, Costa Rica and Ghana.

The 65 scholars are part of the 605 scholars earlier selected to join the ELP, having excelled in their KCSE last year.

The majority, 46 are headed to the USA and Canada, 14 will go to South Africa, three are destined for Ghana while UK and Costa Rica will both receive one student each.

Dr Mwangi described the ELP, launched barely 15 years ago, as a homegrown leadership development success story.