Nana Agyei Yeboah
The Students Loan Trust Fund (SLTF) on Friday released a total of GH¢12 million as loans to students in tertiary institutions across the country.
A total of 10,000 students from 148 tertiary institutions in the country benefitted from this release, which is the first payment being made after the official launching of the “No Guarantor Loan Scheme” on June 9, 2022.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of SLTF, Nana Kwaku Agyei Yeboah, who disclosed this to the media in Accra on Friday, said the amount covers payment to only first-time applicants for the first semester of the year.
First-time applicants from the University of Education, Winneba, recorded 1,523 as the highest recipients, followed by the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) which had 787, the University of Ghana had 511, with Koforidua Technical University recording 488 students and Takoradi Technical University with 371 respectively.
He stated that the amount received by each student ranged from GH¢1,500 being the lowest, and GH¢3,000 as the highest depending on the needs of the students after a means-testing assessment by the SLTF before disbursement to the students.
The CEO explained that all continuing students who are beneficiaries of the Students Loan Scheme in the country were paid in March this year.
Nana Agyei Yeboah appealed to beneficiaries of the scheme to ensure that they voluntarily pay back their loans to ensure that the government gets enough funds at all times to run the scheme for the benefit of others.
He appealed to those who have not yet applied to the scheme to do so since they could also benefit from the loan which was readily available to all qualified students irrespective of political, social, religious and ethnic orientation.
President Akufo-Addo introduced the scheme to ensure that tertiary students are able to secure loans to support their education without much difficulty.
Many Ghanaians have commended the government for the successful rolling out of the no guarantor scheme which had brought about much relief to students, parents and the institutions of study.