The Africa Business Media (ABM) Ltd, publishers of the Ghana Business and Finance (GB&F) Magazine and Dominion University College (DUC) in collaboration with the Ministry of Education have launched Ghana's prime Directory of Scholarships and Financial Assistance to serve as a funding resource for students in Ghana wishing to pursue their education through scholarship.

Every year, there is a substantial increase in financial resources both local and international available in a form of bursaries, but a major challenge facing most students and guardians are how to identify sources of such scholarship hence the launch of the directory.

Dr. Ekow Spio Gabrah, the President of DUC and the founder of this innovative idea in an address at the launch stated that he set himself to put the idea together some two years ago to re-publish a scholarship directory that was first published when he was Minister of Education some 14 years ago.

According to him while he was in office, hardly a week passed by without several parents approaching him to ask if he or the education ministry could finance the education of their ward.

“After many months of receiving such requests, it became clear to me that unless I found a sustainable response to this dying need, I would have no money left at the end of each month. This was partly what inspired the work that led to the creation of the Ghana Educational Trust Fund (GETFund)”, he said.

According to Dr. Gabbrah the directory is presented in nine (main sections, to reflect the principal source of scholarship funds and financial assistance: Government of Ghana, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), Foreign Government/Embassies, Educational Institutions, Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies, Banks and other Financial Institutions, Corporations and Companies, Religious Groups and Faith-based Institutions and Foundations and Trusts.

This resource guide provides basic contact information that allows students (or their parents) to find potential donor websites, contact persons, and telephone/fax numbers to allow the reader to obtain further information regarding a particular scholarship. This directory is also accessible through the website of Africa Business Media.

On her part the Minister of Education Prof. Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang admitted that there are further challenges as to how to go about scholarship application process.

“As the sector minister, it is our collective responsibility to continually look at creative new ways to provide free education to all students particularly the needy but brilliant students. We are encouraged by this innovation and see it as an improvement of an earlier document published by the Ministry of Education in 1999 as a step in the right direction. We need to continue the momentum in strengthening partnerships in providing free education for all”.

The minister also used the platform to clarified government’s decision to scrap teacher training allowances across the country in next academic year to ensure fair and equity in Ghana’s tertiary educational system.

“Teacher Training Schools have been transformed into tertiary status, all tertiary institutions in this country access loans and that is what it will be for our students in the training colleges also, that means there is no justification or whatsoever to isolate them for allowances and leave others to access loans.

These allowances which I don’t want to mention the total amount are small compared to the student’s loan, this has existed for very long time and it is not fair, there is no equity in the system, and I am particularly surprised nobody has made this subject for discussion in this country”.

Prof. Opoku-Agyemang however mention that government is seeking for competent and dedicated individuals as graduates to fill the large deficit the class rooms but not individuals who would be lured into teaching because of allowances.

Bishop James Saah, the Resident Pastor of The Prayer Cathedral at the launch lauded the initiative adding that there are equally brilliant students who have been left on the street due to rising fees that accompany education; therefore the introduction of the directory into the system is timely.

“Most leaders in their biographies and autobiographies tell us stories for the fact that they have been beneficiaries of various scholarship programmes of many countries and it is good that someone is starting same initiative, I really appreciate this because when education and morality converge the outcome is sanctified scholarship,” the Bishop said.