With almost a day to the deadline for the online application for tertiary scholarships for the 2020 batch of the West Africa Secondary School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE), the Ghana Scholarships Secretariat has disclosed that over 20,000 graduates have applied so far.
The Secretariat at a press briefing on December 1 said, following a directive from the President, it had opened its online portal for the students to apply for scholarships.
Overwhelmed
In a telephone interview, Mr Kingsley Agyemang, the Registrar of Scholarships, said he was not surprised by the huge number of applicants.
“Look, I am not surprised that in just two weeks we have this overwhelming figure. In fact, when we made the ‘Big Announcement’ on December 1, the portal was jammed because everyone wanted to apply on time before they miss out,” he said.
He added that the news from the President was so good that some unscrupulous persons decided to take advantage of it by creating a fake website to dupe the graduates.
“However, our intelligence was fast and we were able to inform the public about the fake website which eventually got pulled down,” Mr Agyemang said.
Nationwide interviews
Mr Agyemang further said once the online application is closed, the Secretariat will commence with the next phase, which is the nationwide interview for applicants who were successful with the online application.
He stressed that all the applicants would be notified through an SMS message on when they are to report for an interview and in which district.
“Somewhere this year, we had a successful interview of applicants who applied in April across the country. We are looking forward to having same with these graduates. So in all, it has been a successful first phase and we wish the applicants the best,” he added.
