Finance Minister AMA Muhith handing over scholarship awarding letters to one of the recipients as the chief guest in the city Saturday.

Dutch-Bangla Bank Limited (DBBL) has awarded scholarship awarding letters to 4,057 more poor but meritorious students. 

With this the bank has cleared the seventh phase of its long-term project to provide financial assistance worth Tk 1.02 billion to 30,000 students by 2016, according to the officials. 

Finance Minister AMA Muhith handed over the scholarship awarding letters to the recipients as the chief guest at a ceremony in the city Saturday.

Ambassador of Kingdom of the Netherlands in Bangladesh Gerben de Jong was present at the function as the special guest, while Chairman of the executive committee of DBBL board of directors Sayem Ahmed presided over it.

Managing Director of the bank KS Tabrez, among others, was present at the function.

The students were selected from those who have passed secondary school certificate (SSC) or equivalent exams this year and are now studying at the higher secondary certificate (HSC) level at different educational institutions across the country.

Under the programme, each of the students will get Tk 27,500 yearly, and the renewal for the next academic year (2nd year) will depend on their first year's academic results, the bank officials added.

Lauding the DBBL's scholarship programme, the finance minister said, "It is a great initiative, which is equivalent to that of the state level."

He also appreciated the bank's continuous humanitarian and welfare activities and termed this scholarship programme a unique example of helping the meritorious and needy students.

Mr Muhith advised the scholarship awardees to utilise the fund and flourish their talent by properly educating themselves. The minister also expected that all the corporate bodies of the country would come forward with such programmes for the benefit of the society. 

Mr Gerben de Jong appreciated the Dutch-Bangla Bank Foundation for its generous initiative to build the future of the underprivileged students, facilitating the long-term development of the country's human resources and also helping the country to achieve the middle-income status in the next decade. 

The ambassador also congratulated the students, who got the DBBL's scholarship this year. 

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Sayem Ahmed said the DBBL, as a responsible corporate body since its inception, has been playing a pioneering role in implementing social and philanthropic programmes to help the disadvantaged people of the society.

A number of sectors including education, healthcare and rehabilitation of distressed people are on the priority list of the bank for carrying out its social and philanthropic activities, he said. 

Ninety per cent of the total DBBL's scholarships go to the students, who came from the rural areas, and at least 50 per cent are female students, the chairman added.