Solicity Amankwa-Taylor graduated from the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT) with three academic awards after the MTN Bright Scholarship kept her education alive when her family's finances collapsed, according to GhanaWeb on October 18, 2026.
Today she works as Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) personnel during her national service at YILPORT-ATSL in Takoradi, applying the Environmental and Safety Engineering degree she once feared she would never finish.
How financial hardship nearly ended a university dream
Amankwa-Taylor entered UMaT with a clear ambition: a career in Environmental and Safety Engineering. Her family was not wealthy, but it managed. Then her father lost his job while her elder brother was also in tertiary education, leaving her mother's business as the household's only income source.
Tuition, accommodation and daily upkeep for two university students became a burden the family could not carry. Amankwa-Taylor faced a choice no ambitious young Ghanaian should have to make: seek external assistance or defer her studies until circumstances improved.
The scholarship that changed everything
The MTN Bright Scholarship, run by the MTN Ghana Foundation, supports brilliant but financially disadvantaged students in public tertiary institutions. Selection gave Amankwa-Taylor full coverage of tuition and accommodation, easing the pressure on her mother and clearing her path to graduation.
With money worries gone, she did more than pass her courses. She helped colleagues with their studies and threw herself into academic life, according to GhanaWeb.
Her story is one of the beneficiary profiles MTN Ghana is highlighting as it marks 30 years of operations in the country. It is proof that targeted corporate investment in education delivers measurable returns, a point this newsroom has made before when celebrating young Ghanaian talent, as with the young writers who scooped prizes in the Ghana Through Our Eyes Awards.
Three awards for a student once at risk of dropping out
Amankwa-Taylor turned the opportunity into results. At the Ninth Ghana Mining Industry Awards (GMIA), she was named Best Level 200 Female Engineering Student, an early signal of what was coming.
At graduation, the awards kept coming. She received the Prof Newton Attah Amegbey Award for Best Graduating Student in the Department of Environmental and Safety Engineering, and the Prof Douglas Boateng Award for Best Graduating Student in the Faculty of Geosciences and Environmental Studies.
Three awards, earned by a student who had once prepared to defer. That is the kind of success story Ghana's private sector should be scaling, not celebrating once a year.
From classroom to industry in Takoradi
Amankwa-Taylor is now building professional experience at YILPORT-ATSL in Takoradi, where workplace safety and environmental management are daily business. Her national service placement turns academic training into real industrial exposure, the first step in what should be a strong career in the HSE field.
Ghana's port and mining sectors need qualified safety engineers, and UMaT is producing them. What the country needs next is more pathways from graduation into employment, so talent like hers does not idle after the certificates are printed.
Why corporate scholarships matter for Ghana's youth
The numbers behind stories like this are simple: one scholarship, one family relieved, one professional added to the workforce. MTN Ghana Foundation's Bright Scholarship covers tuition and accommodation, the two costs that push most struggling students out of public universities.
As MTN marks three decades in Ghana, the program stands as evidence that corporate social investment can move the needle on education for all. More companies should follow, and government policy should encourage them to.
FAQ
What is the MTN Bright Scholarship?
It is an initiative of the MTN Ghana Foundation that supports brilliant but financially disadvantaged students in public tertiary institutions in Ghana, covering costs including tuition and accommodation.
Where does Solicity Amankwa-Taylor work now?
She is undertaking her national service as Health, Safety and Environment personnel at YILPORT-ATSL in Takoradi.
Which awards did Amankwa-Taylor win at UMaT?
She was named Best Level 200 Female Engineering Student at the Ninth Ghana Mining Industry Awards, and won both the Prof Newton Attah Amegbey Award and the Prof Douglas Boateng Award as best graduating student in her department and faculty.