“The launch of the scholarships is a further step in our relationship with the Govt. through the Ministry of Health, because every year among other deserving areas, the Bank sets aside some funds from its profits to assist different hospitals in the country either by procuring drugs (medicines) and equipment or refurbishment of infrastructure. This is so because we have put the health sector as the number one beneficiary in our Corporate Social Responsibility ( CSR) Policy.

The reason why health is a high priority sector for us is that at the Bank we believe that for any economy to prosper you need healthy people. Healthy people, including our own staff and our customers, are a productive lot; citizen productivity helps build vibrant families, businesses and organizations and ultimately an economically healthy nation.

So for the past three years the Bank has been paying annual fees of K580,800 per student for the 19 students. In addition to the fees we have also been paying for school uniforms and examination fees in some cases. I am informed that two students left the program here at St. Luke’s for their own reasons.

Apart from assisting the needy students achieve their goals of becoming self reliant individuals in the future, the Bank also introduced the scholarships as its own contribution towards alleviating shortage of Health Care Workers in Malawi.” Mr Macfussy Kawawa, Deputy Chief Executive when he presented three cheques to St. Lukes, St Joseph and Holy Family Nursing Colleges of K5,808,000.00, K3,574,800.00 and K580,800.00 respectively for needy students.