The portal for Bursary and Scholarship applications for year 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 academic sessions respectively, has now been opened, the Kaduna State Scholarships and Loans Board has said.
Speaking at a news conference on Monday, the Executive Secretary of Board, Malam Hassan Rilwan advised interested applicants to apply online at scholarship.kdsg.gov.ng.
The Executive Secretary further disclosed that there are four categories in the scholarship package, which include the Merit-based, Need-based and Sports as well as People Living With Disabilities packages.
‘’For the bursary package, payment is ongoing for the 2017/2018, 2018/2019 sessions while the portal is now open for the 2019/2020 academic session,’’ he added.
Malam Hassan disclosed that all applicants are expected to write an essay of personal statement, adding that thereafter, they will write a Computer Based Test as part of the evaluation process.
‘’Candidates can be evaluated in English, French and Arabic so as to deepen the inclusion process and make room for as many eligible candidates as possible,’’ Malam Hassan clarified.
He added that the Board is going into partnership with a Non Governmental Organisation, ’’Knowledge for the Blind Initiative to serve as accreditation centre for computers with Braille and other special software to aid the blind.
According to him, the merit-based package requires the excellent performance of the applicant, after the initial filings, for a candidate to be eligible.
Malam Hassan also said that the Board will conduct an eligibility assessment for candidates who are applying under the Need-based package.
‘’For this category of applicants, we must determine whether or not they are actually in the Need-based category, by requiring the Bank Verification Number(BVN), their parent’s BVN as well as the Tax Identification Number(TIN), for them to be eligible,’’ he added.
The Executive Secretary clarified that where the parent is not capture in the tax net, he or she should go to the nearest tax office which is located in every local government, for self assessment.
‘’For People With Disabilities, they should go to a government-recognised hospital in order to obtain a medical certificate, stating the disability, in order to be eligible for the scholarship,’’ he further said.
Malam Hassan also disclosed that applicants who are applying under the Sports category need letters of attestation from their school’s sports department.
The Executive Secretary reiterated that scholarship award has been simplified because ‘’you don’t need to know someone in order to get it. All that is required is what you know or how needy you are and not who you know.’’
