ESAMI-trapca Scholarship Program

ESAMI_trapca provides academic training in trade policy, trade law and trade facilitation, through the provision of tuition, accommodation or travel scholarship support to target sub-Saharan African beneficiary countries. The applicants may request for one or all the components of the scholarship support depending on their financial needs which they must motivate.  With each application for a scholarship, the Centre reserves the right to assess the merits therefrom and the type of scholarship award befitting applicants. In this regard, scholarships may be offered on full or partial basis.

ESAMI_trapca courses are offered on multiple entry-exit basis, therefore students must apply for scholarships for individual courses. Applications for scholarships must be fully motivated and must include the following elements:

1. A personal statement/motivational letter describing the relevance of ESAMI_trapca’s course to the applicant’s professional duties or career ambition and their institution or organisation;
2. A personal statement describing the financial needs of applicants and commitment to complete the studies;
3. Applications must be lodged immediately after a call for applications by ESAMI_trapca;
4. Deadlines for the scholarship application must be fully observed.

The admission and scholarships award are treated separately for each applicant. The applicant is selected for admission first. The application for the scholarship is considered for only those who get admission into a ESAMI_trapca program. Therefore, scholarships shall be granted subject to:

1. Confirmed admission into ESAMI_trapca’s courses under which applications for scholarships will be considered;
   • As per the 2022 and 2023 DAC LDC list includes; Click here
2. Receipt of an application letter for scholarship stating clear preference(s) regarding scholarship component(s) applied for;
3. Scholarship/s may be offered on full/partial basis subject to assessment of applicants’ circumstances by the Centre;
4. The frequency of scholarships awards shall be carried out co-terminus with the scheduled ESAMI_trapca courses;
5. Out of cycle scholarships may be offered subject to decline of scholarship offers to applicants;
6. Consideration of scholarship shall be by a scholarship committee chaired by the Principal Finance and Administration Officer (PFAO).

Consideration of scholarship application shall be exclusively based on ESAMI_trapca’s capacity-building mandate as identified in ESAMI_trapca’s strategy and the Prodoc. In line with this, the recommendation of scholarship awards and the decisions thereof shall be guided by the eligibility criteria below:

4.1 Key Criteria for First Time Applicants

4.1.1 Applicants under consideration must have been admitted into the respective ESAMI_trapca’s course/s or programme.

4.1.2 Consideration of applicants should be subject to the following admission filters which shall be considered collectively in awarding scholarships:

1. In order to facilitate country representation by participants from all eligible target Sub-Saharan African LDCs, during the first stage, the scholarship committee recommends at most two scholarships per country based on the following ranking:
   • One scholarship given to a qualifying and eligible African LDC female applicant from relevant trade and trade-related institutions and sectors such as ministries of trade and commerce, customs and revenue as well as bureau of standards;
   • Qualifying and eligible male or female African LDC applicants from relevant trade and trade-related institutions and sectors.
   • Eligible Female applicants from Sub-Saharan African Non-Low Middle Income Countries(LMIC)  from relevant sectors.
2. Taking other criteria into account Gender dimension shall be considered in the award of scholarship with a view to achieving Gender parity where possible.

4.2 Key Criteria for Applications from Continuing Students.

4.2.1 Applicants under consideration must have been admitted into the respective ESAMI_trapca’s course/s or programme.

4.2.2 Consideration of applicants should be subject to the following admission filters which shall be considered collectively in awarding scholarships:

1. Academic performance of applicants in previous courses.
2. In order to facilitate country representation by participants from all eligible Sub-Saharan African target beneficiary countries including the underrepresented target beneficiary countries, at least two scholarships per country should be awarded to applicants based on the following ranking:
   • One scholarship given to a qualifying and eligible African LDC female applicant from relevant trade and trade-related institutions and sectors such as ministries of trade and commerce, customs and revenue as well as bureau of standards. The applicants are ranked in terms of performance in previous courses;
   • Qualifying and eligible male or female African LDC applicants from relevant trade and trade-related institutions and sectors, ranked in terms of their performance in previous courses.
3. Remaining scholarships are distributed as follows;
   • Qualifying and eligible female applicants from Sub-Saharan African non-LDCs from relevant sectors, one per country, ranked in terms of performance in previous courses.
   • Qualifying and eligible male or female African LDC applicants from relevant trade and trade-related institutions and sectors ranked in terms of their performance in previous courses.
4. In case of a tie among eligible applicants, whether in the category of qualifying female African LDC applicants; or qualifying male LDC applicants; or indeed qualifying female applicants from Sub-Saharan Africa non-LDCs, the committee’s recommendation shall be guided by the following filters:
   • academic performance in previous courses with preference given to the best performer of a relevant category where a tie has occurred;
   • Where applicable, qualifying and eligible applicants with a potential to graduate with an award, can be given priority to a scholarship in a given academic year.
5. In circumstances where admitted students from a beneficiary country cannot avail themselves to take advantage of the admission and the scholarship granted, the scholarship will be reallocated in line with points 2 and 4 above.
6. Duration of courses and willingness of potential awardees to complete courses offered in a given quarter.
7. Consideration of students who may have failed courses while under a previous scholarship and subsequently improved their performance.

4.2.3 After the admission, the committee convenes and makes recommendations for awards of either a grant of full or partial scholarships. The recommendations for scholarship awards are based on 20 available full scholarships (i.e. tuition, travel, accommodation) per module/course and 10 partial scholarships targeting sub-Saharan African non-LDCs.

However, through ESAMI_trapca’s cost efficiency measures (i.e. on travel related costs), which may lead to some savings, thus availability of additional scholarships, the committee may recommend award of further full or partial scholarships. Based on this, three scholarship awards may be recommended per country (i.e. this may be a combination of one full and two partial scholarships or two full and one partial scholarships per eligible Sub-Sahara African beneficiary country).

5.1. At the end of its meeting, the scholarship committee shall compile minutes of its deliberations, which shall constitute the committee’s recommendations for scholarships awards to be submitted to the Head of Centre and the Academic Director.

5.2 Following the recommendations by the committee to the Head of Centre and Academic Director of ESAMI_trapca for approval, the latter shall inform the Chair of the scholarship committee of the approval to award the recommended scholarships.

With all conditions met:

1. Recommended applicants shall be officially advised by email of their award.
2. A conditional time frame of two weeks for acceptance of the scholarship offer by the applicants is given and if not accepted it is awarded to the next in line as per ranking for the specific country affected by the rejected offer.
3. Failure to respond within a set time-frame will result in scholarship offer being revoked and offered to the alternate applicant/s as per ranking for the specific country affected.
4. As a courtesy, applicants who are unsuccessful will be equally notified by email after two weeks of awarding the scholarships and receiving confirmations.