The Students Loan Trust Fund (SLTF) has announced the opening of applications for the 2022/2023 academic year.
Tertiary students across the country will be able to access the Students Loan portal either through the organization’s website or by downloading the Students Loan App.
Targeted applicants
It is expected that over 70,000 new applicants will access the loan for the 2022/2023 academic year as against 32,744 students who benefitted last year due to measure put in place to reach out to thousands of applicants.
The expected sharp increase is due to the introduction of the ‘No Guarantor Policy’ last year which has eased the challenges applicants faced in the past looking for people to guarantee for them before being offered the loan.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Students Loan Trust Fund (SLTF), Nana Kwaku Agyei Yeboah, who announced this to the media in Accra on Friday said, every effort was being made to ensure that many students have access to the loan facility to support their education.
Strategic measures
He mentioned the intensification of public education and increase in the number of access points nationwide as some of the measures put in place to bring to the attention of all Ghanaians the activities of the Trust across the country.
Nana Agyei Yeboah stated that there are currently 32,744 beneficiaries on the Students Loan from 110 tertiary institutions across the country.
He explained that in the last academic year, the SLTF disbursed Gh64,645,575.00 of loans to 32,744 students.
The CEO of the SLTF Nana Kwaku Agyei Yeboah has encouraged students to take advantage of the new policy to access subsidised financing for their tertiary education.
Background
The government through the SLTF, in June 2022 launched the ‘NO Guarantor policy’ with the sole aim of easing the difficulty applicants faced in accessing loans to support their education in tertiary institutions across the country.
With the introduction of this policy, student loan applicants no longer need guarantors to access the loan.
It is expected that the removal of the guarantor requirement will lead to an increase in the number of students who can access the loan.
By Felix Baidoo
