The president of the Yankasa Association Alhaji Ibrahim Abdulai Masigan has paid a courtesy call on the vice president, Dr. Mahmudu Bawumia at the Jubilee House, discussing the intended Global Scholarship.
The meeting comes as a follow-up to an earlier meeting held between the two when the vice president traveled to the US.
Accompanied by some elders, the president of the US-based socio-economic organization briefed the vice president on the progress made so far about the scholarship program, which is geared towards the training of medical doctors for the Muslim community and the nation at large.
President Masigan emphasized the need to train many doctors, which is one policy direction of his administration since taking the leadership seat in 2021.
“Our target is to train 100 medical doctors in Ghana within a span of 10 years, with 10 doctors each year from various universities in Ghana,” President Masigan said.
“This project, in sha Allah, will help reduce the alarming doctor-patient ratio, which will be of immense benefit to the Muslim community at large.”
He said it is a duty for every Muslim to contribute his or her widow’s mite to ensure the success of the scholarship fund, which aims to reach a total of 100 medical doctors within a 10-year period.
When fully operational, the Global Scholarship Fund will cater to the financing of 10 Muslim medical students per year.
The ratio of doctor to patient in Ghana is over 100 to 1, and Yankasa wants to award scholarships to needy but brilliant students from Muslim communities in Ghana to train medical doctors so as to bridge the gap and increase the number of Muslim doctors in the country.
In response, the vice president lauded the idea, which he said fell in line with government policy to solve the country’s dire medical challenges.
He further thanked the 3-member delegation for their visit to brief him about the progress being made to bring the project to fruition.
He said the government would do its best to support the project.
Since being elected to lead the Yankasa Association in December 2021, President Masigan has embarked on robust social interventions that are aimed at tackling health and education challenges in the Islamic communities in Africa.
Tuesday’s meeting with the vice president will be the first to be held in Ghana since he came to power.
Accompanied to the Jubilee house on Tuesday were the president of the Greater Accra Council of the Bissa Chief, Mohamed Ali Dabre III, who is the first president of the Yankasa Association, and the Sarki Zongo of North America Alhaji Bala Braimah
The Yankasa Association of the US has been a philanthropic organization that promotes and articulates the interests of Ghanaians in the New York metropolis.
Established in 1984, it has made a lot of benevolent contributions to Ghana with respect to charity, and this time it wants to go beyond that to help mitigate some of the challenges in health care.