From Donald Nduka, Owerri
The Franklin Ngoforo Foundation has launched the Tony Ezenna Scholarship Scheme (TESS), in honour of renowned business mogul and philanthropist, Chief Tony Ezenna of Orange Drugs fame, with a target to sponsor 1,000 indigent students from Ideato, Imo State in the next 10 years.
Speaking at the launch on Sunday, September 20, 2026, the founder, Mazi Franklin Ngoforo, said the first phase of the scheme will fully sponsor 20 beneficiaries from Junior Secondary School One (JSS1) through university.
Ngoforo said the initiative is aimed at converting Ezenna’s legacy into a continuous investment in people especially the younger generation.
”There are many ways to honour a great man. You can give him an award. You can put his name on a building. But there is an honour greater than all of these. It is to take the values that made him great and reproduce them in another generation,” he said.
He described Ezenna as a source of identity and pride for Ideato, noting that his interventions in road construction, including the Orlu-Umuchima-Akokwa Road, sports development, education, churches, and community projects, have given the area respect that money cannot buy.
”Ideato has not honoured Chief Tony Ezenna enough. If he lifted people, then let us lift people. If he opened doors, let us open doors,” Ngoforo said.
According to him, the scheme will not just pay school fees but “plant human beings” who will become doctors, engineers, lawyers, teachers, entrepreneurs and leaders. He added that the foundation’s broader plan includes skills acquisition, vocational training and business support.
Ngoforo disclosed that a committee was set up to select the pioneer beneficiaries based on need, intellectual ability, potential and fair spread across Ideato.
He charged the beneficiaries to see the scholarship as a responsibility, not just a gift.
”Poverty must not decide who becomes great. Somebody has invested in your future because he believes your future can become an investment in the future of others,” Ngoforo said.