Tamale, May 10, GNA - A Tamale based company that cultivates certified organic mangoes for export and local consumption has instituted a scholarship scheme for school children in its production areas. Under the scholarship, the best student to excel in the junior secondary school examination in the Savelugu/Nanton District would be offered a full scholarship to complete secondary and university education.

Mr James Amaligo Nyaaba, Assistant Programmes Officer of The Integrated Tamale Fruit Company (ITFC), told the GNA in Tamale on Tuesday that the aim was to motive the children to take their education seriously.

He said the assistance came from ITFC "Children to School Project" and that as a first step to improve education in the district, the company had built six-bedroom bungalows at the cost of 427 million cedis for teachers to ensure that they accepted postings to the area. The company has also started offering children one meal a day for primary one to six pupils as a further motivation for them to stay in school and that the company would do its best to ensure that children were not withdrawn from school.

Mr Nyaaba said six volunteer teachers had been recruited into Gushie and Dipale Primary schools and given the necessary support to teach and gave the assurance that assistance would be extended to other districts later.

He said apart from giving infrastructure assistance to children and their schools, ITFC was also assisting farmers under its out grower system. Mr Nyaaba said ITFC was cultivating 1,190 hectares of land and has since assisted about 790 farmers with support from WIENCO, the World Bank and other external donors from Holland. He said the mangoes would be ready next year for export and that ITFC had already satisfied the local market in the Northern Region and called on farmers to go into mango plantation since there is ready market for them. 10 April 05