By Oronsaye James Valentine
Management of Rubber Estates Nigeria Limited on Monday 14th August 2023 presented award letters and cheques of N120,000 each to 29 qualified children of its staff who participated in the recently conducted scholarship qualifying examination.
The award ceremony which is the 2nd edition in the series took place in Osse River Site of the Company and has continued to elicit commendations from both staff and their dependents.
Shortly before the presentation, the Managing Director of the Company, Olivier Odoukou noted that the initiative of awarding scholarship to children of its workers has become a normal practice in the Company.
He maintained that the gesture would go a long way to contribute to the academic pursuit of the beneficiaries and by extension reduce the burden of school fees from their parents.
He congratulated the awardees for their show of hard work in their ability to pass the qualifying examination which he said was conducted to select the best from among the lots and urged them not to relent in their quest for academic excellence.
Olivier Odoukou maintained that management of Rubber Estates Nigeria Limited holds the welfare of its staff in high esteem and by this decided to contribute to the success story of their wards.
On his part, the Executive Director, Finance, Emmanuel Abana expressed management readiness to continue to support academic excellence through the award of scholarship to deserving undergraduates in higher institutions of learning.
He further stated that the gesture of awarding scholarship to children of staff goes a long way to reaffirm management commitment to the welfare of both the staff and their dependents and urged the beneficiaries to be good ambassadors of the Company in their various institutions of learning.
Speaking on behalf of the scholarship awardees, Miss Ifeoma Orji, a 300-level student at the University of Benin, thanked the management of the Company for recognizing the effort of their parents and by this initiated the award of scholarship to their children as a way of cushioning the impact of increasing school fees in higher institutions of learning as well as ensuring that their children become better people in future.
She affirmed that the awardees’ commitment to take their academics with all sense of seriousness so that the efforts of RENL management in their academic pursuit will not be in vain.
Also, Ayuba, a parent to a beneficiary and a staff of the Company, noted that management has done a great job in allowing the children of staff to participate in the scholarship award Programme to at least ease the financial burden of the parents and to also encourage the children to study hard in other to benefit from the company’s kind gesture.
He noted that the gesture has again increased workers’ vigor in continuing to put in their best for the overall development of the Company.
He affirmed that the present management led by Olivier Odoukou has proven to workers that they are committed to making a difference and that the management have over time proven this commitment by matching words with actions.
The ceremony climaxed with the presentation of award letters and a cheque for 120,000 each to the 29 awardees for 2023/2024 academic session.