In a bid to support Government Free Quality Education, Sierra Mineral Holdings I Limited through it Community Development Committee gave scholarships to 500 students in universities, colleges and technical and vocational institutions in Sierra Leone on 28th February 2020. The students are indigenes of our primary host mining communities. This education support is part of the company corporate social responsibility to develop sons and daughters from these communities to prepare them for future roles in the company. The CFO Abdul Bangura said the total cost of this investment amount to Le1, 832,000,000. He said the money is derived from the 1% of the company sales revenue which goes for community development. Mr. Bangura said the recipients of these scholarship awards will benefit next year as long as they do not drop out of school or fail their examinations. He said of this amount, TechVoc and University students from Lower Banta chiefdom benefited Le392,000,000, Upper Banta Le353,000,000, Kpanda Kemoh Le363,000,000, Mano Dasse Le350,000,000 and Bumpeh Gao Le374,000,000.
The Deputy Minister of Technical and Higher Education Dr. Turad Senesie was thanked SMHL-Vimetco for listening to the clarion call of President Rtd Brigadier Julius Maada Bio to improve the human capital of the citizens of Sierra Leone. He said the mandate of his Ministry is to provide quality, accessible and relevant education to its citizenry and that in achieving this mandate, such intervention from Vimetco is important. Dr. Senesie went on to say government aim is to ensure students are able to get jobs in various field in the extractive sector after graduation. He said this is the biggest scholarship awarded to Sierra Leoneans ever in the history of Sierra Leone by a mining company. He encouraged the students to make use of this opportunity to become better citizens who are prepared to drive development in Sierra Leone.
