Ghana's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and Ireland, Sabah Zita Benson, has been explaining why scholarship payments for Ghanaian students in the UK were in arrears and says it was because some of the scholarships were awarded with "recklessness."
Ghanaian scholarship beneficiaries in the UK have been facing financial crises due to legacy debts totaling roughly £32 million to £35 million, leading to protests, frozen university accounts, and delayed stipend payments spanning up to 40 months.
Following this, the Ghanaian students in UK have planned a street protest scholarship payment delays on July 30, 2026.
In a series of social media posts monitored by Graphic Online on Wednesday (July 29, 2026) in reaction to the planned street protest by the scholarship beneficiaries in the UK, the High Commissioner to UK said there were plans underway to clear the arrears and that, "At least we [NDC government] have not been reckless; we paid three million pounds (£3 million) of this recklessness last year (2025). This year we have paid the first quarter; we are processing the second quarter payment as we speak. Eventually, we shall clear the mess, but I do hope someone is accountable soon," she said.
According to her, it was because of the "recklessness" in awarding scholarships in the past, which was currently being "cleaned," that is why there were arrears.
For example, according to the High Commissioner, there was "this particular scholarship [which] was given to a 16-year-old to attend a private school (high school level) that will prepare her for a good college, which is outside the mandate of the Scholarship Secretariat," she wrote in a post on Facebook on Wednesday afternoon.
"They [Scholarship Secretariat] spent over £56,000 on preparing her for a good college. So those who want to come and protest tomorrow because Government hasn’t paid your fees, you now know where your money went. You should have protested from 2020 - 2025 when they [NPP government] were not paying, that would have solved some of your problems and mine as well."
"At least we [NDC] have not been reckless; we paid three million pounds (£3 million) of this recklessness last year. This year we have paid the first quarter; we are processing the second quarter payment as we speak. Eventually, we shall clear the mess, but I do hope someone is accountable soon," she said.
In another post, the High Commissioner wrote:
"One person gets a scholarship award to go study in the UK. The award includes her spouse and her three children.
The spouse and children were paid £8,160 pounds EACH to accompany the wife and mother to go study!!! That is different from the scholarship amount to the beneficiary
Why????
Their Air ticket alone in this instance was GH¢90,000.
The document below is just one example. We have hundreds of such cases.
These monies that was spent on spouses and dependents of scholarship students could have been used to clear the annual tuition and stipends of students in the UK that accumulated to over 37 million pounds since 2020-2025.
Such RECKLESSNESS!
In another post she wrote:
"This is VISA APPLICATION, TB VACCINATION AND AIR TICKET for two students and a spouse of a student=GH¢90,420
These SCHOLARSHIP STUDENTS really enjoyed paaa. Even TB vaccination was paid for Them. When they enjoying these things, they were quiet, enjoying the goodies with their families."
"Now they are going to PROTEST Because the money is not coming after such abuse of tax payers money.
We are focused on cleaning up the mess," she added.
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