GETFund unable to meet obligations to scholarship students due to failure by govt to release funds

Some of the scholarship beneficiaries have been sending distress calls to their parents, relatives and the media in Ghana complaining about the hardship they have  to endure since the government has failed to pay both their tuition fees and other allowances.

Forty of such students in the United Kingdom have up to Friday, March 22, 2013, to pay their accommodation fees or be dragged to court.

Others in some other areas have also sent SOS messages to Ghana, complaining about untold hardships they were going through, as well as threats of termination of courses by their schools.

There are about 200 postgraduate students undertaking various courses in the United States of America (USA) and Europe through GETFund scholarship.

The courses include Law and Accounting in Oil and Gas, Management, Sciences and Cancer Pharmacology.

Explaining the issue, Mr Baffoe said the problem started in September 2012 when the Ministry of Finance released part, instead of the full complement, of accruals for the fund for September 2012.

The result of that part payment, he said, was that the GETFund was able to make part payment of the school fees and living allowances of scholarship students.

He said some of the schools accepted the part payment because they had dealt with the fund for some time and believed in its reliability to settle everything in full in due course, saying the difficulty had arisen because of the delay on the part of the Ministry of Finance.

“We are very sure of getting some money very soon to pay as much as we can. We are praying that the money to be released will be big enough to pay for all,” Mr Baffoe told the Daily Graphic.

Story by Donald Ato Dapatem