The Women’s Commissioner of the Students’ Representative Council (SRC) for the 2025/2026 academic year at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi (KNUST), Ms. Mavis Aning, has funded the payment of school fees for five students after redirecting part of her commission’s Valentine’s Day allocation toward financial support.
Aning said the Student Fee Support initiative was inspired by her own experience as a scholarship student.
“As a scholarship student from first year to fourth year, I understand firsthand how heavy the burden of school fees can be,” she said. “I wanted to ease that burden for some of my colleagues, even if only in a small way.”
She said the idea had been on her mind since the previous year.
“When I won this position, I decided to use the opportunity to do something different and meaningful, specifically to move away from the usual Valentine’s Day programme and instead use the occasion to help my fellow students,” she said.
Aning expressed gratitude to the Directorate of Student Affairs and Mrs. Theodora Oduro for supporting the implementation of the initiative.
The Director of Student Affairs, Prof. Marian Asantewah Nkansah, commended the commissioner’s decision, describing it as an example of “wisdom and thoughtfulness.”
“In today’s world, especially among young people in leadership, the common attitude is often ‘what is in it for me,’” she said, adding that Aning had instead asked, “how can I help others with what I was given?”
“This is a very worthy cause, since the primary reason students are on campus is to learn, and having peace of mind to learn and excel matters greatly,” she said.
Nkansah encouraged the wider university community to consider institutionalising similar interventions, noting that “no act of generosity is too small.”
“You do not need to have a lot before you can give. If you have 100 cedis, you can give 10. If you have 1,000 cedis, you can give 50 or even split it between two people. That is just 10%, and it makes a real difference to someone else,” she said.
She also urged beneficiaries to value such support and challenged students to cultivate a habit of giving, regardless of financial capacity.
“Whether you have much or little, the more you give, the more you receive,” she said.
One of the recipients, speaking on behalf of the group, thanked the commissioner and university officials for the intervention and described it as timely and impactful.
University officials said they hope the first cohort of the student fee support initiative will mark the beginning of a lasting tradition of student-to-student generosity at KNUST.
By: Abigail Ofori
