Government has outdoored a new mechanism to make scholarship application and award transparent in the country.
It follows the launch of an online scholarship application and administration system yesterday.
Vice President Mahamadu Bawumia who performed the launch at the Jubilee House (presidency) in Accra on March 31, said it would ensure a proper audit of scholarship in the country beginning tomorrow, Wednesday, April 1, 2020.
It also saves potential applicants and beneficiaries the burden of moving physical and paper applications around especially, in these times of an outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic.
The new system is expected to capture accurate data of scholarship beneficiaries as well as tracking their academic progress.
There will also be linkages between the Scholarship Secretariat and the various institutions of learning and embassies for validation to be done online.
This, Dr Bawumia said meant that “if Scholarship Secretariat awards a scholarship and someone wants to use that to acquire a visa, they can check immediately to see that the person has indeed been awarded a scholarship.
“Any applicant will be able to conveniently apply for a scholarship from the comfort of their home and receive an instant feedback on the status of their application,” he said, adding “you don’t have to worry now, where is my application; you can track it at any stage of the process.”
He commended the visionary leadership of the Scholarship Secretariat for the initiative since according to him, it is not only inclusive, but also “digitised and efficient”
He entreated stakeholders to embrace the new initiative for the benefit of Ghanaian students, especially the vulnerable.
Registrar of Scholarships at the Scholarship Secretariat, Kingsley Agyemang said the new online application will help eliminate the inconvenience of applicants seeking government sponsorships and also help the Secretariat in proper and efficient administration of scholarships.
For one to be able to apply for a scholarship online under the new system, they first have to open the web address scholarshipgh.com and create an account to register.