The Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) has disbursed a total of GH¢ 25,278,029.39 as scholarship grants to beneficiary students for the 2022/2023 academic year.
In all about 4,279 students, representing 98 per cent of scholarship awarded over the period by the fund benefited from the disbursement.
The awardees cut across respective programmes of study at both undergraduate and postgraduate level and would benefit from the scholarship till the end of their courses.
Speaking to the Ghanaian Times in Accra on Monday, the Administrator of GETFund, Dr Richard Boadu, said the number of scholarships awarded this year represented an increase of 63 per cent of successful applicants compared to the 2,704 of last year.
He explained that out of the 4,279 beneficiaries, 2,951 were either pursuing diploma or degree programmes while 1,321 were pursuing Masters or PhD programmes.
Dr Boadu noted that the beneficiaries or awardees included those in public and private tertiary institutions from across the country.
He said 1,963 of the students, representing, 46 per cent, were pursuing Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) related programmes while the others were studying other programmes across the spectrum.
Dr Boadu said the fund, as of Tuesday, August 2, 2023, had paid the total sum of fees allotted to awardees into the accounts of accredited colleges and universities.
Touching on the process, the administrator said in mid-November 2022, the fund advertised to the general public, inviting prospective applicants to apply for the local scholarships through its online portal.
He said the online portal was created solely for the reception of scholarship applications and the management of same.
Following the opening of the portal, Dr Boadu said about 22,000 applications was received.
He said that “The overwhelming show of interest in the scholarships prompted the Board of Trustees of the fund to increase the available slots to the current high numbers of 4,279 recipients.”
Dr Boadu said as of August 2, this year, about 300 of successful applicants had not accepted their awards.
“It must be placed on record that as of Tuesday, August 2, 2023, about 300 successful applicants have still not accepted the scholarship offers sent to them via their email addresses. Hence, the fund is unable to process their documentation for further action,” he explained.
Dr Boadu said that all the beneficiaries were schooling in Ghana, stressing that “The fund over the past two years has not granted any foreign scholarship due to budgetary constraints.”
BY CLIFF EKUFUL
