The Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, has urged students of public tertiary institutions who need financial support to pay their academic user fees to make use of the Students Loan Trust Fund (SLTF).
He said under the present circumstances, students could apply for loans and be given the money without the need for guarantors.
“The good news is that President Nana Akufo-Addo gave approval for the establishment of what is called the ‘no guarantor policy’, which is now a law of the land, which means students can apply for loans without guarantors, “ he said.
Dr Adutwum made the call at a stakeholders meeting at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi last Friday, April 22, 2022.
Held at the instance of the minister, the meeting was meant to address the challenges that had led to the deferment of the programmes of study of some 6,000 KNUST students last week.
In attendance were the KNUST Council Chairman, Nana Effah Apenteng; the Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Professor Ellis Owusu-Dabo; representatives of the Students Representative Council (SRC), the Graduate Students Association of Ghana (GRASAG) and the SLTF.
Dr Adutwum said the management of the fund would be engaging the university community more often to see how best to support needy students for them to pay their fees.
Payment plan
Over 6,000 students of the KNUST recently had their courses deferred, following their inability to meet the university’s fee payment plan.
According to the University Relations Office (URO) of the KNUST Dr Daniel Norris Bekoe, in a recent interview with the Daily Graphic, some of the affected students had since been reinstated after meeting the fee payment plan.
At the meeting, the university management gave a four-week lifeline for the affected students to settle their bills.
Commendation
Dr Adutwum lauded the KNUST management for providing the lifeline for the deferred students.
He also commended the leadership of the SRC for galvanising resources to help their fellow students defray their indebtedness.
Besides, he acknowledged parents and guardians for responding to the call to pay the fees of their children and wards.
He indicated that as the government assisted the universities in various ways, it behooved the institutions to accrue internally generated funds to continue to run effectively.
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