WEBB History

Webb of Excellence > History

Webb of Excellence Welfare Fund…our modest beginning

“if you educate a man, you educate an individual but if you educate a woman, you educate a whole nation”.

-Dr James Emman Kwegyir Aggrey,

Founder of the famous Achimota School in Accra, Ghana.

Our Inspiration

These great words of inspiration, coupled with a huge dose of fellow feeling for the needy and the deprived were what moved Ms Eleanor Louise Webb, a woman from St John’s Newfoundland, Canada, to establish the Webb of Excellence Welfare Fund to provide financial assistance for brilliant-but-needy female day students of the Ada Senior High School, a town some 99.2 kilometres from Ghana’s capital city.

Choice of Ada

The choice of Ada Senior High School was not by chance. It is a deliberate effort on the part of Ms Webb to touch the lives of the youth, particularly the girl-child, whom she still has very fond memories of since she left the shores of the Ada in 1970, after a two-year teaching stint under the Canadian Universities Services Overseas (CUSO) programme. It also serves as her modest contribution expansion of the frontiers of education, which in the words of the great South African statesman, Nelson Mandela, that “is the most powerful weapon which can change the world”.

Excellent

It is instructive to state that the Webb of Excellence Welfare Fund is the first of its kind to be established by the many expatriates, who came mainly from Britain (under the VSO programme), United States of America (under the Peace Corps programme) and Canada (under the CUSO programme) to assist the school in teaching and learning during its formative years.

Additional Award

Additionally, the Fund has also instituted an award for the Best Business Student in SHS 1, SHS 2 and SHS 3 which is presented annually at the school – Speech Day or no Speech Day.

Maiden Meeting

Mr Sammy Tetteh and Dr Edward Soga were instrumental in putting the team of Administrators together and the maiden meeting was held at the residence of Mr Tetteh at Kaiser Valley, Taifa, on Thursday, October 1, 2015. Even though Dr Gabriel Ofoe Canacoo was absent at that maiden meeting, he was unanimously named chairman of the group with Mr. Emmanuel Amoako as Secretary.

The four-member team worked together until November 2017 when Mr. Sammy Tetteh decided to withdraw his services for personal reasons.

Current Team of Administrators
The current Administrators of the Fund are: Dr Gabriel Ofoe Canacoo, a lecturer (chairman), and 1971 graduate of the school; Mr Emmanuel Amoako, a journalist (Secretary), 1969 graduate of the school and Dr Edward Soga (treasurer), a former student of Adisadel College, 1974 graduate of the University of Toronto and a retired dentist of the 37 Military Hospital, who made contact with Ms. Webb during his studies at the University of Toronto.
Award Winners to Date
To date, the Fund has successfully awarded scholarships to three female students of the Ada Senior High School, namely: Stella Akpanglo (2015-2017), Charity Assigbey Kpeleme (2016-2018) and Emelia Korlekuor Addowah (2017-2019).

Seed Money

With a seed money of 3,000 Canadian dollars and GHc500 provided by Miss Louise Webb and Dr Edward Soga respectively, the Fund quickly moved into action, opened a current account (No: 101-112-000-454 which was later replaced by Account No. 100 113 000 1832) at the head office of the Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB). All three Administrators are signatories to the Account but any TWO of the THREE are authorized to transact business with the bank at any given time.

Support from donors

The Fund has received support from voluntary donors since its reception. They are

Abbott Gwen, Baird Irene, Carter Cris, Coultas Bill, Crabb Alison, Decker Bev, Dugdale Jane, Feaver Sheila, Finney Vicki & family, Griffin Sharon, Hancock Serena (fundraiser-yoga) and Dr Hart Randy.

Other are: Mahon Joan, McIntoch Dervla, McIntoch Pamela, Myers, Heather-yoga, St. Andrew Presbyterian Church, Strang Jill (Sea Cadets Lawn), Taylor Ann, Webb Ali, Webb Dennis, Whitfield Jennifer, Zeller Sharon and Xing Kia

Treasury Bill Investment

To ensure that remittances into the account yield some dividend, the Fund Administrators decided to invest into a 91-day rollover Treasury Bill. An initial investment of Ghc10,000 (Ten Thousand Cedis) was made on May 26, 2016, and the threshold was increased by another Ghc10,000 (Ten Thousand Cedis) on April 28, 2017.

As at September 2018, the Treasury Bill Investment stood at GHc30,000 (Thirty Thousand Cedis).

At the Fund’s last meeting held on Wednesday, December 5, 2018, it was agreed to increase the Treasury Bill Investment to GHc40,000 (Forty Thousand Thousand) and on Monday, August 19, 2019, this was implem