The University of Embu has embarked on an ambitious target of raising its Endowment Fund to Sh10 billion, aiming to leverage investment returns to offer scholarships to more needy students.

Through this initiative, the university projects to completely eliminate cases of student dropouts and deferment of semesters caused by financial hardships.

Vice Chancellor Prof. Daniel Mugendi, said the fund is currently approaching Sh100 million mark since inception in 2018 and has been able to support slightly over 5, 000 needy cases.

“We would like to impact more students and that is why we have set this target of Sh10 billion to be able to assist many indigent cases that currently we are unable to,” said the VC.

Speaking on Saturday during a funds mobilization walk cum family fun day, the VC said that the interest raised from the target kitty would be adequate to meet almost all the cases they come across every time.

“The principle of an endowment fund is that you don’t utilize the principle, but the accrued interest meaning that the higher the kitty, the higher the interest and the more cases that can be supported,” he explained.

Embu University Fund Board of Trustees Chair, Lenny Kivuti said the fund had transitioned from a modest emergency kitty into a rapidly growing perpetual financial network capable of sustaining needy students continually.

“The over 5, 000 students we have successfully kept in school so far is proof of a fund that is rapidly growing, functional and able to sustain itself,” he emphasized.

Kivuti, who is also former Embu Senator, said they have been able to minimize public fundraisers for underprivileged students at the institution through this institutionalized system that is well structured, reliable and more dignified.

The University Chancellor Prof. Musili Wambua said the endowment model should be adopted by all universities, warning that traditional government funding through capitation will never be sufficient to sustain higher education.

“The truth of the matter is that the government has so many other activities to fund and the number of students seeking to be supported will keep growing,” he stated, saying universities have no option but to come up with alternative methods of supporting their activities.

He noted that most of the universities world over do have endowment funds running into billions of dollars that supports scholarships for needy students locally and overseas.

By Samuel Waititu