Tamale, May 4, GNA - The Northern Ghana Education Trust Fund (NETFUND) has awarded scholarships to 130 brilliant but needy pupils from the three Northern Regions who excelled in this year's Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) to pursue courses in senior secondary schools (SSS) of their choice.

Each of the beneficiaries would receive about 1.2 million cedis to cater for school fees, which are not covered by government subventions. The Fund is already sponsoring 150 students at the SSS level in schools all over the country.

Mrs. Nabilla Williams, a member of the trustees of the NETFUND presented the awards to the pupils on behalf of the Board Chairman, Alhaji Rahim Gbadamosi, in Tamale on Thursday.

In an address read for him, Alhaji Gbadamosi congratulated the award winners but reminded them that the condition for retaining the scholarship would be from year-to-year based on their academic performance and discipline in school.

He explained that the allocation of the scholarships reflected the population distribution of the Northern, Upper East and West Regions and that was why out of the 103 beneficiaries, the Northern Region got 40 as against 30 each for the Upper East and Upper West Regions.

Alhaji Gbadamosi noted that because government alone could not address all the problems of education in Northern Ghana the NETFUND was established to supplement government's efforts. He said it was to achieve this mission that the NETFUND had periodically organised activities to raise money to provide the necessary financial support to disadvantaged students to enable them to attain high standards in education.

He regretted however, that most financially well-to-do Northerners were not contributing to the Fund saying: " Our success naturally depends on how we are able to sustain the level of our financial inflows".

Alhaji Gbadamosi appealed to the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies in the three Northern Regions to make contributions out of their Common Fund to support the NETFUND.

He also appealed to Members of Parliament from the three regions to contribute to the Fund from their share of the Common Fund.

Alhaji Gbadamosi announced that the NETFUND would this year, launch a fund-raising campaign to mobilse five billion cedis to support the Fund.

Alhaji Abubakar Saddique Boniface out-going Northern Regional Minister said the government had introduced the capitation grant to make education accessible and affordable to all, since human resource development played a crucial role in the development of the country. He therefore commended the NETFUND for complimenting government's efforts in the field of education and urged the elite of Northern Ghana and other stakeholders, as well as business concerns operating in the area to make substantial contributions to uplift the standard of education in the area. Alhaji Boniface made a personal contribution of two million cedis and also contributed five million cedis out of his share of the Common Fund to the NETFUND. 04 May 06