The President of the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS), Dennis Appiah Larbi-Ampofo, has revealed that the Student Loan Trust Fund (SLTF) has disbursed loans to over 5,000 students.
According to him, the SLTF has fulfilled its promise and equally pledged to disburse funds to other applicants yet to receive the loan.
“At our last meeting, the CEO of the SLTF said the first disbursement was going to made on the 14th of March. True to his word, our students started receiving their payments. As I speak to you, over 5000 students have been paid as the first batch. With my latest engagement with the SLTF, they said they are working to pay the second batch. So, I can confirm that some students have received their loan payment.”
Dennis Appiah Larbi-Ampofo
Mr Larbi-Ampofo equally urged the government to prioritize the Student Loan Trust Fund and uncap the GETFund to ensure student loan repayment.
“Our belief is that the funds from GETFund to the students’ loan can be facilitated if GETFund is uncapped. So, we call on government to listen to our petition and uncap GETFund. Government must add some political commitment to the running of the SLTF. That is the only way we are able to ensure regular disbursement to our students.”
Dennis Appiah Larbi-Ampofo
His comments come after months of delays, with the National Union of Ghana Students and the University Students Association of Ghana (USAG) putting pressure on the Student Loan Trust Fund to release funds to applicants.
USAG for instance hinted at plans to resort to all legal means including picketing and demonstration to press home their demand for the disbursement of student loans.
Dennis Appiah Larbi further appealed to past beneficiaries of the student loan to repay the loans in order to sustain the Fund as government funding to the agency delays.
Prior to this, the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS), called on the Student Loans Trust Fund (SLTF) to disburse outstanding loans due students across the country. NUGS stated that it had received reports about the non-disbursement of loans to its members. NUGS says the delay is posing a lot of challenges for the affected students.
The student-advocacy group urged government to expedite action in resolving the current situation, especially as KNUST was set to write mid-semester exams from 27th of February 2023. It explained that the unfortunate situation would result to several of its student’s being unable to write the exams due to inability to pay their fees as a result of non-payment of student loans.
Government entreated to uncap GETFund
Similarly, NUGS has lamented the declining nature in allocation of the Ghana Education Trust Fund to the education sector.
According to union, 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.
The President of NUGS 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%.
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.
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