NDC TEIN urges govt to settle students loan arrears

The University of Ghana (UG) branch of the Tertiary Education Institutions Network (TEIN) of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has urged the government and the Students Loan Trust Fund to settle all student loan arrears within a week.

According to the group, failure to do so will lead to “spirited actions in the coming days.”

A statement signed by the President of the group, Ayikwei Armah Ayitey, and the General Secretary, John Andrew Richardson, which was issued in Accra last Wednesday, expressed displeasure over the delay in the disbursement of the students loan for the 2018/2019 academic year.

According to the statement, the loan fund was established to serve as a responsible vehicle to provide equal financing of tertiary education to alleviate the financial difficulties that students encounter.

Delay in disbursement

“It is, however, instructive to highlight that the fund has become a rickety vehicle endangering the academic life of innocent Ghanaian students who rely on it to ease their financial burden,” the statement said.

It said the fund managers, in recent times, had failed to pay eligible students their loan amounts, two weeks after the beginning of each semester in line with the fund’s terms and agreements.

“In several follow-ups to ascertain the real challenges that have necessitated the delays, our outfit has been met with well-rehearsed fairy tales that cannot pass the criterion of intelligible reasoning,” the statement added.

Unfair treatment

It said the government had committed resources to the payment of allowances to other allied tertiary education students while others had been neglected.

The TEIN warned that such repeated delays in the payment of the loans will no longer be countenanced by students across the country, hence the one-week ultimatum.

“We further wish to indicate and reiterate that any measure by the government or the Fund Managers in response to our call which does not adequately address the issues so raised shall be rejected and met with a great deal of spirit actions in the coming days,” TEIN stressed.