Ghanaian medical students in Cuba unpaid for 9 months

The Ghana Scholarship Secretariat has confirmed that it has not been able to provide allowances of Ghanaian medical students in Cuba for the past nine months.

It, however, said the secretariat was awaiting approval for payment request from the Ministry of Finance to enable the Controller and Accountant General’s Department to release the allowances to the affected students.

Registrar

The Registrar of Scholarships of the Ghana Scholarship Secretariat, Mr Fuseini Lansah, who disclosed this in an interview, said the key stakeholders including the Office of the President, the Ministry of Finance and the Controller and Accountant General’s Department were putting in place measures to ensure that the students receive their allowances regularly.

“After the Minister of Finance has approved the request, he will then instruct the Controller and Accountant General’s Department to release the money depending on the availability of the amount needed by the students,” he explained.

Communication channel

Mr Lansah said the secretariat was communicating with the students’ representatives in Cuba and the Ghana Mission in Cuba to assure them that their allowances would be released.    

He, therefore, urged the students to refrain from activities that would bring the name of the country into disrepute.  

Situation in Cuba

Ghanaian medical students on government scholarships in Cuba claim they have been forced to selling their personal effects to feed themselves.

According to them, that had become the only option left for them now, since the government had failed to pay them their allowances for over nine months.

About 200 students left Ghana for Cuba in 2012 to study in different fields of medicine with scholarships from the government.

These students were selected from deprived areas across the country and are to stay in Cuba for six years. While in Cuba the government is expected to pay each student $250 dollars every month for his or her upkeep.