A total of 2,000 students are to benefit from Kingdom of God Foundation (KGF) scholarship award for 2019/2020 academic year.
The scholarship is tenable at Kings University in Ghana and Liaoning University in China for students who want to pursue programmes such as Bachelor of Law, Bachelor of Business Administration, Bachelor of Information Technology, Masters of Business Administration, Bachelor of Computer Science and Pre- University programmes.
Mr Felix Kwame Semavor, founder of the Foundation said the scholarship was to provide avenue for Senior High students and other applicants to have access to tertiary education without difficulties.
He said 1000 out of the 2000 scholarship awards, were reserved for students who had their Senior High education in the Volta region with the aim of "making the region an attractive location for Senior High School education,"
Mr Semavor said this when the Foundation in collaboration with the Kings University College and Liaoning University in China launched the 2019/2020 scholarship award in Ho.
He said the Foundation also had a scholarship package for Junior and Senior High teachers to study Bachelor and post Graduate degree Programmes in the Kings University College to build their capacity for effective academic delivery.
Madam Enyonam Amafuga, Director of Education, Volta Region, said the key to better jobs, higher status, and greater social and political influence was higher education and challenged young people in the region to take the opportunity and commended the Foundation for the foresight.
The Regional Director said students' inability to pay school fees at the tertiary level was contributing to high dropout rate, estimated at 15 per cent in private schools.
Dr Archibald Yao Letsa, Volta Regional Minister said making higher education accessible to the poor and vulnerable in the country required the support and collaboration of strategic partners such as those in private sector, and private individuals through the provision of scholarships and bursaries to needy but brilliant students.
He said "government was in full support of the initiative of KGF and its associates whose primary objectives are to raise funds to financing of tertiary education in Ghana and also build human resource capacity for teachers in Junior and Senior High Schools.
"There is therefore the need for us to give the required knowledge, skills, capacity building and values to our young people through education in order for them to innovatively contribute to our industrialization and transformation processes" he stated.
Dr Letsa said though government was putting the necessary measures in place to ensure that all students of the Senior High level were absorbed at the tertiary level upon successful completion, without effective support and collaboration from stakeholders, the vision would not be realised and called for support from all.
Mr Prince Hama, Chief Executive Director, KGF said the scholarship award would be meritorious and need-based and that beneficiaries were also expected to maintain a minimum grade point average (GPA) of 3.0.
He said any student whose GPA dropped below the point would be withdrawn from the programme, adding, KGF also reserves the right to withdraw scholarships of awardees who failed to comply with the terms of the offer.