The Church of Pentecost (CoP) has offered full scholarships to a total of 36,122 young Ghanaians at an estimated cost of GH 7.1 million.
The scholarship which was offered at various level of education, according to the church, was the biggest educational support to be offered by a religious and corporate organisation in Ghana.
The Chairman of the CoP, Apostle Eric Nyamekye, disclosed this during his State-of-the-Church Address delivered at the Opening Session of the 17th Session of the Extraordinary Council Meeting of the church yesterday at the Pentecost Convention Centre, Gomoa-Fetteh, in the Central Region.
He explained that, the beneficiaries were drawn from the various districts, areas, ministries as well as the headquarters last year.
Apostle Nyamekye indicated that out of the total amount spent on scholarships, the headquarters of the churchcontributed GHC500,735.35 under the Pentecost Education Scholarship Scheme (PESS), for the tertiary students.
“Most of the beneficiaries are students of the Pentecost University (PU), which is now a fully chartered tertiary institution,” he added.
Apostle Nyamekye stated that, education was one of the priorties of the church and that it was committed to supporting its members to reach that ladder.
“Education is key to success and so as we continue to possess the nation as a church, we are committed to reaching out to everyone in every sphere of life,”he said.
The chairman noted that, the church through its social services wing, Pentecost Social Services (PENTSOS), operate total of 98 basic schools with two Senior High Schools and two vocational training institutes in the country.
He said PENTSOS also collaborated with the Pentecost Education and IT Workers Guilds to develop a robust integrated school information management system to strengthen the supervision and monitoring in Pentecost Schools.
“The church through PENTSOS has established a bakery at Busunya creating direct employmet for 150 youth in the country and over 500 indirect jobs in the Nkoranza North District in the Bono East Region,” the chairman stated.
Apostle Nyamekyeindicated that, the church through PENTSOS had also offered skills training to 44 persons with disabilities in various trade vocations across the country.
He said PENTSOS had commenced a 10-acre solar a year round powered irrigation farming project to help farmers cultivate vegetable crops in the Bawkumuniciplality, using improved agronomic practices.
On health, the chairman disclosed that, a total of GHC2,951,453.04 was sepnt on healthcare support to its members.
“This covers the construction and commissioning of Pentecost clinics at Kultamise and AbrafuoOdumase, our operation of about 10 health facilities with a total of 1,043 CoP health staff strength and about 24.6 percent Out Patient Department attendance,” he said.
Meanwhile, the chairman indicated that, the church had a total membership of more than 3.3 million as at last year December which constituted 10.8 per cent of the Ghanaian population.
Apostle Nyamekye prayed that, the over 3.3 million membership of the church would translate into righteousness to impact and transform the society.
BY VIVIAN ARTHUR