Ghanaian students in China cry for stipends

The Scholarship Secretariat has expressed worry over reports that about 33 Ghanaian students on government scholarship in China are stranded because their stipends have not been paid by the Ghana government.

The students, made up of 27 regular students and six others who are on the one-year-abroad programme who have been in China from 2013, told a section of the Ghanaian media that they were stranded because their stipends had not been paid.

The Spokesperson for the students, Mr Yaw Damoah, said the unnecessary delay had negatively affected their academic work and left them at the mercy of friends.

According to him, the Chinese government had fulfilled its part of the joint scholarship that was awarded them but the Ghanaian government had failed to provide $321 to each student under the terms of the agreement of the scholarship.

Response

However, speaking to the Daily Graphic on the issue yesterday, the Director of the Scholarship Secretariat, Mr Fuseini Lansah, said the stipends were released to the Ghana Embassy in China in the first week of January this year.

“The Bank of Ghana (BoG) sent a confirmation to us at the Scholarship Secretariat to the effect that the money had been transferred to the Ghana Embassy in China to pay the students.

“I am aware that the process is quite bureaucratic, but I expected the students to have received the money by now,” he added.

Mr Lansah said the secretariat had sent correspondence to the Ghana Embassy in China to ascertain the cause of the delay.

He added that the delay in budgetary allocation to the Scholarship Secretariat was a major cause of some of the delays that occurred in the past.

Mr Lansah gave an assurance that all efforts would be made to ensure that the stipends were paid to the stranded students to enable them to focus on their academic work.

Background

Over the past few years, there have been similar reports of students on government of Ghana scholarships abroad getting stranded, with some of them going through difficult situations, including ejection from their hostels.

The Daily Graphic carried a story in its September 24, 2015 issue about a number of students who were stranded in countries such as Macedonia, Serbia, the Czech Republic, Ukraine and Morocco.

Following the report by the Daily Graphic, the Scholarship Secretariat expedited action on the matter, leading to the payment of the stipends after two weeks.