President of the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS), Dennis Appiah Larbi-Ampofo, has lamented the declining nature in allocation of the Ghana Education Trust Fund to the education sector.
According to him, the decline, spanning years, has posed major impediments to the success of the education sector. He revealed that the impact of the decline began somewhere in 2019, when a total of about GHC1.8 billion was supposed to be accrued from the 2.5% that every single Ghanaian pays in form of taxes. However, he explained that the powers of Act 947 enacted by government meant that, the finance ministry only allocated GHC1.2 billion for that year.
Mr Larbi-Ampofo indicated that in 2020, a total of GHC2 billion was accrued, and only about GHC1.2 billion was allocated to GETFund, which meant a decline to 60%.
“In 2021, GHC2.3 billion was to be accrued, GHC1.4 billion was allocated… Then in 2022, the biggest challenges started coming out of GHC3.2 billion that was accrued. Initially, when the first budget was read, 81% was supposed to be allocated, so we all felt it was good but during the budget review it was dropped to 56%… In 2023, GHC4.6 billion is expected to be accrued, the finance ministry released a budget and the saddest thing in the two-decade period of education is that 39% is allocated.”
Dennis Appiah Larbi-Ampofo
Mr Larbi-Ampofo explained that the reason for the staggering decline cannot be attributed to the current economic situation as the decline did not start last year. He explained that government cannot use the current situation of the country as a measure to justify the decline.
“We get to a point where we analyze what is the total percentage of GETFund to government revenue – it’s 4%. So, it really does not save your problems much.”
Dennis Appiah Larbi-Ampofo
Justifying his stance, the NUGS President noted that when government has challenging issues, one of the key areas it must be quick to find funds to sustain should be the education sector, food and health. In light of this, he emphasized that “if there is any place that every little counts is education where you have millions of Ghanaian students sitting in classrooms without desks”.
Impact of GETFund in education sector
Commenting on the need for the GETFund, Mr Larbi-Ampofo recounted that somewhere in the late 1990s, there were concerns about how education was being funded in Ghana. The concerns, he noted, stemmed from the low investments into education and so with the support of the National Union Ghana Students and the entire student fronts, there were calls for the establishment of a fund that would have the core mandate of financing or assisting the financing of education.
“Fast forward, a bill was put to parliament and in August 2000, it was assented. In the year 2001, the erstwhile President Kufuor government now established the Ghana Education Trust Fund as an administrative body as per Act 58 (1) to regulate the operation of the GETFund. Fast forward, we have a 2.5% component of the GETFund as mandated by Act 58 (1)…”
Dennis Appiah Larbi-Ampofo
Between 2001 and 2017, the NUGS President emphasized that the impact of GETFund has been “solidly amazing”, as there are so many institutions who have in one way or the other received aid from the Fund. He revealed that beyond this, institutions such as the University for Development Studies is engineered on the funding of the GETFund.
However, he highlighted that in 2017, a bill was laid in parliament again titled: Earmarked funds capping, and realignment bill which was subsequently passed. This fund, he noted, meant that there are many statutory funds in Ghana and about fourteen of them were going to be capped or limited, of which some of the monies that are supposed to go there will be redirected into other areas of government’s expenditure.
“… Some areas according to the dynamic and vision of government needed more funds at the time. As the National Union of Ghana Students, we do not have a problem with that, where the problem comes in is when we add education to those funds because education does not have that luxury of excess funding, every pesewa counts…”
Dennis Appiah Larbi-Ampofo
