About

the African Scholarship Hub

Over $750 million is invested annually in scholarships for students in sub-Saharan Africa. The African Scholarships Hub supports students to access these opportunities.  

This hub has been inspired through our research at Education Sub Saharan Africa (ESSA) on scholarships. We have spoken and worked with students, scholars, investors, universities and governments. 

Through our conversations with students, we heard common challenges: 

• “I didn’t know how to research scholarships”

• “I wasn’t sure where to look”

• “We are all looking at the same scholarship programmes”

Our hub makes scholarship opportunities easier to find and access, and only shows scholarship opportunities that are available to sub-Saharan Africa students.

The hub initially has 277 providers who offer in the region of 25,000 scholarships to students in sub-Saharan Africa.

We will be updating the hub regularly with new opportunities. 

The African Scholarship Hub has been inspired and created with funding from a private donor and the Germany based Schaufler Foundation.

Schaufler Foundation website

ESSA's SCHOLARSHIP IMPACT programme

Millions of people on the world's youngest continent are at risk of missing out on education and getting decent jobs.

University and college scholarships are on the rise. They must change dramatically to become inclusive, focused on impact, and reach enough young people to help solve this challenge.

We studied over 350 of the top scholarship programmes around the world, for students from sub-Saharan Africa. The findings uncovered some of the biggest problems such as high student drop-out rates, high risks of fraud, limited support for students to find jobs, and limited access for students who need scholarships the most. 

This analysis features in UNESCO’s 2020 Global Education Monitoring (GEM) report, on Inclusion and Education, as the official monitoring of the Sustainable Development Goal 4.b on scholarships.

Read the Report

We have been working with 25 top scholarship providers, creating a framework and guide which includes 6 Key Performance Indicators to help providers and investors measure the impact of their scholarship programmes, promote transparency and lead to problem solving.

Download 'A Guide for Increasing the Social Impact of Scholarships'

These Key Performance Indicators aim to measure performance in terms of effectiveness right throughout the scholarship process: from finding and selecting students, programme support, young people achieving their ambitions post-scholarship, and the wider benefit for their communities. They are linked to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

You can read a short version of our 6 Key Performance Indicators below. If you would like to find out more about the framework, please get in touch.   

info@essa-africa.org