Economic Reporter :
As many as 1091 students received Mercantile Bank Abdul Jalil Education Scholarship-2015 award at a ceremony held at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the city on Wednesday.
Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed attended the scholarship award giving programme as chief guest while Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Media Advisor Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury and Mercantile Bank Foundation Chairman Alhaj Akram Hossain (Humayun) as special guests, said a press release.
Chaired by bank’s Chairman Shahidul Ahsan, Managing Director Kazi Moshihur Rahman delivered his welcome speech at the programme.
Prior to handing over scholarship cheques and certificates to the students, the minister lauded Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s steps for increasing budget allocation for the students. “After achieving independence, we had no foreign-exchange reserves, no jobs and no economic activities,” he said.
He said Bangabandhu dreamt of strengthening country’s economic growth, but he could not see it.
He said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is making Bangabandhu’s dream a reality of building Sonar Bangla. At present, our growth is more than 7 per cent while forex reserve US$33 billion, remittance $15 billion and export target is $34 billion, the minister added.
PM’s Media Advisor Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, also Editor of the Daily Observer, said the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is allocating highest budget for education. Student get free-textbooks on the first day of new academic year and the government has created a Tk1.0 billion fund for students’ scholarships, he said.
Mercantile Bank Limited as their corporate social responsibility introduced this scholarship in 2010.
Vice Chairmen Md Anwarul Haque and AKM Shaheed Reza, Executiv Committee Chairman Md Selim, Chairman of Risk Mangement Committee Md Shahabuddin Alam, Directors Md Shahabuddin Alam, ASM Feroz Alam, M Amanullah, Md Abdul Hannan and Al-Haj Mosharraf Hossain, honourable Shareholders S M Abdul Mannan and M A Khan Belal, Bank’s Additional Managing Director Md Quamrul Islam Chowdhury, Deputy Managing Directors Mati- Ul Hasan, Gaus-Ul-Wara Md Mortaza and Adil Raihan, and Senior Executives of the bank, students and their guardians were present in the award giving programme.
