Government Distances Itself From Fake Presidential Scholarship Ad

The recent advert that was circulating on social media inviting applicants to apply for the presidential scholarship is fake. This was revealed by The Zimbabwe Presidential and National Scholarship Office.

The advert, which circulated last week, had a cellphone number through which applications were required to send mobile money as processing fees.

Also attached was an email address allegedly from the fake presidential scholarship scheme.

However, Chris Mushowe, the executive director for the Zimbabwe Presidential and National Scholarship Office, roundly dismissed the message as fake in a statement yesterday. He said

“The Zimbabwe Presidential and National Scholarship Office wishes to disown these adverts and advise the public that all genuine government scholarships are always placed in the public print media and public broadcaster and never on social media,”

“Furthermore, the government of Zimbabwe does not charge prospective applicants processing fees and no funds are sent through individual… lines or individual bank accounts,” he said, adding that the genuine government programme is done once at the beginning of the year soon after the release of Advanced Level results. Submissions of applications are done in person and not through the email being circulated online.

The message seems to be one of many scams that are being done by unscrupulous individuals via social media and mainly on WhatsApp.

Another scam that saw many losing their hard-earned money promised to turn a $100 RTGS investment to $600 RTGS in 30 minutes. You can read about that scam here.

About the Zimbabwe Presidential Scholarship

The Presidential Scholarship Programme is a state-run department which facilitates academic scholarships for underprivileged Zimbabwean students. The students are offered opportunities to study in local and international universities.

The programme has been in existence since 1995 and to date, thousands of students have benefitted from it. 

You can see one version of the fake ad below.

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