Presenting the 2021 budget statement the Majority leader in Parliament Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has stated that the district level scholarship scheme will be made available online for easy access by all.

He said the decision was reached to make the application process easy and transparent and curb any third-party involvements.

“Mr Speaker, the Ghana Scholarships Secretariat introduced automation of the District Level Scholarship Scheme from the online scholarships application process through to the payments of awards. The objective is to make scholarship application accessible to all and also increase transparency in the awarding process,” he said.

He noted that “the secretariat was able to make payments for tuition fees and allowances to scholarship beneficiaries under the various scholarship schemes for the 2019/2020 academic year. Mr Speaker, in 2020, a total of 1,748 foreign and 47,141 local scholarships and bursaries were awarded to students.”

However, the Secretariat will award 20,000 local scholarships to needy students made up of District Level Scholarships Scheme (DLSS), Bursaries and Thesis grants to postgraduate students in public tertiary universities, long-stay allowances to medical students, and allowances to the physically challenged. Under foreign awards, the Secretariat projects to grant 2,384 awards. This includes bilateral, non-bilateral and year-abroad.