Cooperative Bank is keen to channel more funds into its education scholarship programme, the lender has said, amid expected good prospects in the banking sector.
This comes as top-tier banks in the country give back to the community a share of billions earned in profits for the year ended December 31, to support needy students as schools reopen.
Incepted in 2007, Cooperative Bank Foundation Scholarship Scheme, the longest-running programme amongst lenders in the country, has so far sponsored over 9,000 gifted but needy students from across the country.
“We are focused on sustaining the programme in the long-term. Unless corporate institutions and everyone of goodwill, come together to support initiatives within the education sector, brilliant but needy Kenyans will never realise their full potential,” Co-op Bank Group managing director and CEO Gideon Muriuki said.
According to Muriuki, a large number of Kenyans currently holding positions of responsibility 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,” he notes.
This year, the Coop Foundation has granted over 655 full secondary education scholarships.
In the 2020/2021 financial year, the lender spent more than Sh158 million on the education programme.
The scholarships are awarded on merit to gifted but needy students from all regions of Kenya.
