Budget For Student Loan Trust Fund Decreased Drastically [Trouble for beneficiaries and applicants]

Budget For Student Loan Trust Fund Decreased Drastically [Trouble for beneficiaries and applicants]

1. The Student Loan Trust Fund was established to replace SSNIT Student Loan Scheme in the year 2006.

2. The Student Loan Trust Fund has various variations in how the loans are accessed and how it is paid compared with the SNNIT Student Loan. The Students Loan has seen some challenges in the disbursement of funds to beneficiaries.

3. The government also decided to lift some limitations on how the loan is accessed by applicants by removing the guarantor system and replacing it with only the Ghana Card (ECOWAS Card) with the reason that there is no need for a guarantor if the beneficiaries can be efficiently tracked.

4. The removal of the guarantor system, which means more applicants can easily access the loans and more applicants are actually expected to access the Student Loan.

5. Interestingly, in a revelation by the Africa Education Watch’s CEO, Kofi Asare, the budget allocation for the Students Loan Trust Fund has been reduced by virtually forty per cent (40%) from Ghc5.1 million in the 2022 budget to Ghc3.1 million.

6. Though it is unclear what data or assumption the finance ministry used in allocating the funds, what is clear is the fact that there are going to be more delays in the release of funds to beneficiaries and/or there will not be an increase to how much applicants are given and/or more applicants may not be approved for the funds.

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