LESS than three years in and more than $13 million spent, the Universal Service Fund (USF) is reporting an overwhelming response to scholarships it offers to students in need.

The scholarship initiative, which began in 2022 as part of the Government’s digital transformation push, has benefited some 14 individuals so far who have opted to study in the information and communication technology (ICT) field.

“We provide full scholarships from start to finish, so it’s not a case where we only go with year-three or year-four students. From the moment you enter these programmes, anything that is ICT-linked; so obviously programming, the software side, but also engineering, anything that’s ICT-related, students can apply,” USF Chief Executive Officer Charlton McFarlane told editors and reporters during this week’s Jamaica Observer Monday Exchange at the newspaper’s Beechwood Avenue headquarters in Kingston.

He said individuals with “significant financial challenges” are the intended target of the scholarship initiative.

According to McFarlane, however, the demand for assistance far outstrips what the USF is able to supply.

“I can tell you, based on what I’ve seen from 2022, that it has been a task. We have been getting hundreds of applications and you are talking perhaps about four or five scholarships. So the demand is definitely there,” the USF boss stated.

McFarlane said the importance of the entity, which is in its 20th year, has never been more apparent.

“We are now starting to see just what the digital transformation is and we have been the drivers for it, and the USF is literally the agency mandated to drive it, at least from a financial standpoint,” he said.

An agency of the Ministry of Science, Energy, Telecommunications and Transport, the USF has a mandate to ensure access to information and communication tools to facilitate development. The entity operated as the Universal Access Fund Company Limited in 2005 following a ministerial order which mandated that all domestic telecommunications providers are obligated to collect a universal service levy on all inbound telephone calls. Today, the USF uses these funds for the execution of myriad national ICT projects and has developed more than 380 Community Access Points (CAP) sites. Under this programme the USF equips and furnishes community centres with computers, printers, projectors, and other tools for use by residents. It further equips the sites with Internet service.

In the meantime, the USF, in 2020, began the provision of community Wi-Fi services and now has 389 community Wi-Fi hot spots spanning all 63 constituencies. The intention is to roll out another 63 this year.

The USF further operates a public Wi-Fi programme where it goes into major town centres and beefs up the Wi-Fi coverage. To date it has 30 public Wi-Fi locations.