The Student Loan Trust Fund (SLTF) on Tuesday released a total of GH¢11.2 million as loans to some students in tertiary institutions in the country.
A total of 10,000 students from 182 tertiary institutions across the country are to benefit from the amount which has been released to various beneficiaries’ accounts.
This is the second payment being made in three months after the official launching of the ‘No Guarantor Loan Policy’ launched in June this year in Kumasi.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of SLTF, Nana Kwaku Agyei Yeboah, who disclosed this to the Graphic on Tuesday, said the amount is the second batch of releases to the No Guarantor applicants.
The CEO said the release follows the completion of the latest applications received by the SLTF after the release of the first batch of payments of GH¢12 million to applicants in July.
He commended the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, for introducing the ‘No Guarantor Policy’ which has eased the burden of many students who could not get people to guarantee their loan application forms in the past.
The Chief Executive Officer pledged to continue working very hard to ensure that all applicants would be paid the required amount when necessary to ease their burden at school.
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 indicated that every effort was being made to ensure that no students are denied education due to financial constraint.
The CEO appealed to those who have not yet applied to the scheme to do so since they could also benefit from the loan which was available to all qualified students irrespective of political, social, religious and ethnic orientation.
The Education Minister recently announced that students applying for admission would at the same time fill out student loan application forms so that when admitted, funds would be ready for their admission processes.
Background
The difficulties involved in getting people to guarantee students loans applicants used to be a major challenge to many students in tertiary institutions in the country.
This prompted the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo-led government to introduce the No Guarantor scheme to ensure that tertiary students are able to secure loans to support their education without much difficulty.
By Felix Baidoo
