Dr. Mariam Abubakar
Somewhere in Wenchi, in the Bono Region, a family once faced a heartbreaking crossroads: allow their daughter to continue pursuing her dream of becoming a doctor, or ask her to step aside from Medicine for something cheaper.
Today, that daughter is Dr Mariam Abubakar, a junior doctor serving patients at Holy Family Hospital. The pivot that made the difference was a single, fully funded scholarship from the MTN Ghana Foundation.
As MTN Ghana marks 30 years of connecting people, businesses and communities and looks back on three decades of impact, Mariam’s story is one of the lives behind that journey. It is a story of a young woman whose dream was almost interrupted by financial difficulty, and how an investment in her education helped carry that dream through to graduation and into the medical profession.
A Dream Too Expensive to Keep
Medicine is one of the most demanding and costly programmes in any Ghanaian university. For Mariam Abubakar, gaining admission to study Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB) at the University of Cape Coast was a milestone that filled her family in Wenchi with immense pride. But pride, as they quickly discovered, cannot pay school fees.
As she moved through her academic years, the financial weight of the programme grew heavier. When the time came to raise fees for yet another year, the money simply was not there. Her family sat together and faced reality: perhaps Mariam should defer Medicine and enrol in something less costly, a programme the family could actually afford. It was a practical suggestion, born not from a lack of love but from an honest reckoning with limited means.
Mariam heard the suggestion and made a quiet decision: she would not defer. She would hunt for a scholarship instead.
“My family suggested I defer Medicine to read another programme that was less costly. That’s what led me to scholarship hunting, so I don’t defer Medicine,” she said.
The MTN Bright Scholarship Selection That Changed Everything
When the message came that she had been selected as an MTN Bright Scholar, Mariam did not take it quietly. The relief was total and immediate, not just for her, but for the entire family that had been holding its breath alongside her.
“I was extremely elated. I knew where my next fees were coming from, so my heart found rest. I was among the happiest beings on earth when I found out I had been selected.”
For her family, the scholarship carried a meaning that transcended its monetary value. It was not simply tuition paid; it was confirmation that Mariam’s dream of becoming a doctor could continue. The deferral conversation was over. Medicine would continue.
For MTN Ghana, the Bright Scholarship has become part of a longer commitment to education and young people. Launched in 2017 as part of the company’s 20th anniversary celebrations, the programme has continued to support brilliant but needy students through tertiary education.
Now, as the company celebrates its 30th anniversary, Mariam’s experience offers a glimpse into what that investment has meant at an individual level: one student was able to remain in school, complete her medical training and begin the career she had always wanted.
A Triple Crown of Excellence in Medical School
In 2025, Mariam Abubakar graduated from the University of Cape Coast with her MBChB degree — a six-year programme that tests the intellectual and emotional limits of those who undertake it.
She had not deferred. She had not switched programmes. She had gone the full distance and come out a doctor.
She graduated with three distinct awards: Overall Best Student in Surgery, Best Student in Family Medicine, and the Emeritus Professor E. E. Brako’s Prize for Best Student in Microbiology.
A Family That Now Has A Doctor
After graduation, she navigated the transition period that most young doctors know well: the waiting, the paperwork, the clearance process before internship begins. In mid-April 2026, that wait ended. Mariam commenced her internship at Holy Family Hospital, working as a Junior House Officer, her first steps as a practising physician.
“The scholarship led me into my dream career as a medical doctor. I am grateful to Allah for bringing MTN Bright Scholarship my way,” she said.
When Mariam reflects on how the scholarship has impacted her family, she says it simply and with quiet pride: her family now has a doctor of their own.
In many Ghanaian households, particularly those outside major cities, access to quality healthcare often begins with whom you know, and what they can offer in a moment of need. For her family in Wenchi, that person is now Mariam.
Her story carries a particular resonance for families across the Bono Region and beyond who watch their children win university admissions only to watch them slip away from their programmes because the money runs out. Mariam’s journey shows what can happen when a student who is determined to continue her education gets the financial support to do so.
The MTN Ghana Foundation’s investment in her was not merely in one student. It was in the doctor she has become, the patients she will treat, the diagnoses she will make, and the families she will reassure in a hospital corridor.
As MTN Ghana celebrates 30 years, Mariam stands among the beneficiaries whose stories give meaning to those three decades. Her journey from a young medical student who feared she might have to leave Medicine to a doctor serving patients is a reminder that the impact of an investment in education can continue long after the scholarship itself has ended.
“I am grateful to Allah for bringing MTN Bright Scholarship my way.”
The MTN Bright Scholarship
Since its launch in 2017 to mark MTN Ghana’s 20th anniversary, the Bright Scholarship has supported 1,220 brilliant but needy students to complete their tertiary education, covering the full cost of tuition, accommodation, a laptop, and a stipend for books and study materials.
Over nine years, the programme has reached beneficiaries across 18 tertiary institutions nationwide — from KNUST, the University of Ghana, and the University of Cape Coast, to colleges of education and health training institutions in every region — reflecting MTN’s deliberate investment in broad-based, equitable access to higher education rather than concentrated support in a few urban centres.
The academic outcomes speak to the calibre of support provided: 17 Bright Scholars have graduated as valedictorians or best students in their universities, 299 with first-class honours, 47 with second-class upper, and 16 with second-class lower.
For Mariam, however, the significance of the scholarship can be traced to one simple outcome: when her family could no longer see a way to keep her in medical school, she found one.
And today, there is a doctor in the family.