Concerns raised over student loan trust fund’s shortfall

The Students Loan Trust Fund (SLTF), established to give subsidised loans to Ghanaian tertiary students studying in accredited institutions, has been hit with an acute funding challenge, evident in its inability to honour about GHS50 million (US$4 million) to qualified applicants in the 2023 academic year, reports B&FT Online.

The 2023 West African Senior School Certificate results are on record as the best in the four years of the Free Senior High School policy. With the majority of candidates obtaining grades A1-C6 in the four core subjects: English language, social studies, integrated science and mathematics, intake into tertiary education would be high, putting more pressure on the SLTF.

The executive director of Africa Education Watch, Kofi Asare, has stated that this situation is likely to worsen for the 2024 academic year due to inadequate financing of the student loan scheme by the government. The inadequate financing of the SLTF led to undue delays in the payment of approved loans, and limited the number of successful applicants to only 70%.
Full report on the B&FT Online site