Students Loan Trust pays GH¢25m teacher trainee allowance

The Students Loan Trust Fund (SLTF) has released GH¢25 million to cater for the allowances of 47,000 teacher trainees in all 46 colleges of education in the country.

"The payment represents two months of arrears, and we are working to pay an additional two months soon to clear all arrears," the Chief Executive Officer of the Fund, Nuhu Bayorbo Mahama, told the Daily Graphic yesterday.

Restoration

Following the restoration of the allowances, each teacher trainee receives GH¢400 a month, with GH¢200 paid to their respective institutions as feeding grant and the remainder disbursed to the trainees.

Mr Mahama said the two months arrears being worked was about GH¢25 million.

The disbursed money, he said, was for the 2023/2024 academic year, and urged trainees who still had issues with the process to submit their data so they would receive their allowances.

The release of allowances to teacher trainees is the second bulk payment by the fund in a week following the disbursement of GH¢20 million as loans to students in various tertiary institutions across the country.

It brings the total amount released by the SLTF to GH¢45 million within a week.

The students loan was disbursed to 13,500 beneficiaries in the various institutions in the country.

The amount was for the second semester of the current academic year for qualified continuing and final-year students.

The GH¢20 million brings to GH¢60 million the amount of loans disbursed by the fund since January this year.

Recovery

The month of August is used as recovery period by the SLTF to remind debtors to settle their indebtedness to the fund.

Mr Mahama said the fund wanted to make the repayment month of August very relevant so employers who had some debtors working with them would get them to pay.

During the repayment month, he said the Fund undertook various programmes, including media interviews, engagement with employers, sending text messages and writing letters, through which it recouped some money.

Averagely, Mr Mahama said the trust fund mobilised between GH¢90,000 and GH¢100,000 a day during the period, and urged those still owing to settle their indebtedness with the fund to enable it to honour its obligations to other students.

The CEO said the SLTF had targeted to recover GH¢80 million from debtors, an upward revision of last year’s GH¢75 million target.

About SLTF

The SLTF was established in December 2005 under the Trustee Incorporation Act (1962), Act 106.

The objectives of the trust fund are to provide financial resources for the sound management of the trust for the benefit of students and to help to promote and facilitate the national ideals enshrined in Article 25 and Article 38 of the 1992 Constitution.

For the purpose of achieving the objectives of the Trust Fund, monies from the trust fund are applied to the relevant activities that the trustees of the fund may determine, including in particular, the provision of facilities to enhance tertiary education to support students.