NICO Pension donates K4m towards purchase of laptops for Poly’s needy students
NICO Pension has donated K4 million to the University of Malawi’s constituent college, The Polytechnic to purchase laptops for needy students at the institution.
This follows a similar donation to Malawi University of Science and Technologies (MUST) made in March through which it further emphasizes NICO’s commitment to supporting the education sector from which it also benefits through tapping human resource from.
This is NICO Pension’s response to appeals that these learning institutions made to various stakeholders taking cognizance that COVID-19 pandemic has affected their academic system — thus technology is being used as an alternate system of teaching and assignments.
During the cheque presentation, The Polytechnic’s acting principal, Associate Professor Nancy Chitera, expressed gratitude towards NICO’s gesture, saying it will go a long way in helping their needy students.
“The pandemic has affected us so much,” she said. “Our aim has always been to provide an equal chance to education to all our students.
“However, due to the pandemic, we had to introduce online classes and some students were struggling as they do not have gadgets to enable them to attend the virtual lessons.
“With assistance from NICO, we can provide such gadgets to the underprivileged students,” she said.
NICO Pension’s General Manager, Gerald Chima said the leading financial institution service provider believes in supporting the education sector as through it, NICO is contributing to the development of Malawi.
“We are determined to always do our part when it comes to education. With an educated nation, we can enjoy the fruits of this beautiful nation,” Chima said.
He further encouraged the beneficiaries of the initiative to remain determined in pursuing their education.
“Your education will always be yours. No one can take that from you, but you need to take it seriously and put more effort in your studies as well,” he added.
NICO Pension assisted MUST with K3 million for the university’s ‘A gadget for a needy student’ initiative, which provides laptops and tablets that assist their academic studies.
“We are determined to always do our part when it comes to education,” Chima continued to say. “As a corporate citizen NICO Pension remains committed to ensuring giving back to the community it operates in.”
As a leading financial services group in Malawi, NICO has supported initiatives that uplift Malawians in the areas of education, health and environmental conservation.
Last year, NICO Pension, together with NICO Life — another NICO Holdings subsidiary — responded to a call for help from University of Malawi (UNIMA) by donating personal protective equipment (PPEs) as they were preparing for resumption of physical academic classes that were suspended as part of the preventing measures in the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic.
The two companies also donated K6 million to College of Medicine to acquire lap tops for 30 needy of its undergraduate students, who were facing challenges to access lessons in the wake of the tertiary institution being closed.
In October, another NICO Holdings subsidiary, NICO Asset Managers donated K4.83 million to Hope for the Blind as continuation of the contributions the two partners has engaged in the past six years towards paying tuition fees for vision-challenged students studying at Chancellor College in Zomba.
Since 2014, NICO Asset Managers has been supporting some vision-impaired students through Hope for the Blind and the partnership was inspired to be continued following some of the girl students excellent performance during their studies right from secondary school.
In February last year, NICO Life and another NICO Holdings subsidiary, NBS Bank sponsored the official launch of the Student Society of Banking and Finance at the Polytechnic in Blantyre as a gesture of solidarity to foster a lasting partnership towards Banking and Finance degree programme.
NICO also has a programme running in which it provides academic materials for deserving tertiary students.
Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :