Yellowknife (June 23/03) - Aboriginal students will have greater access to scholarship money thanks to a new $12 million fund.

The Canadian government announced the establishment of this fund on Friday.

The goal of the fund is to enhance the capacity of the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation to provide post-secondary scholarships to aboriginal students, said Sheila Copps, minister of Canadian Heritage during a telephone conference from Hamilton, Ontario.

The foundation currently provides $2 million a year in scholarships to about 600 students.

The fund will provide an extra $500,000 a year to be distributed across the country.

The scholarship money is awarded on a case by case basis.

"Any aboriginal person is eligible.

"There is no age restriction and there is no particular sum of money attributed to a particular region," said John Kim Bell, founder and president of the NAAF.