Student loan Fund to Replace SSNIT Loan Scheme

The much awaited student Loan Trust fund is expected to be launched soon in Ghana. This comes more than relief to the citizens of Ghana especially the student population.The student loan fund scheme is proposed to be introduced in the place of SSNIT loan scheme. This is supposed to come into effect probably from the beginning of the next academic year.

This will be administered through the functioning of a trust. The members of the trustees have also disclosed the financial plans. They have declared that they are expecting to disburse a sum of ¢875.6 billion. The catch is that this amount is for the next three years only or in other words this amount will be utilized to meet the educational expenses of eligible students for the next three academic years.

During an official press meet one of the trustees of the loan by name Accra Mrs. Kokui mentioned that it will be funded via GET FUND which expands as Ghana Education Trust Fund. She also added that the objective of this corpus amount is to help the students financially and as well as to utilize the resources of SSNIT fund fully for the benefits of pensioners as a major chunk of it is getting drained to the student loans ever since the funds were started to be used for that purpose. Similarly she also gave a brief explanation of other terms and conditions for utilization of this fund. One of the important issues that deserves attention is eligibility and she has told that students who have already availed or have been offered financial assistance in SSNIT loan scheme will not be eligible to apply for this fund irrespective of the academic years under which their tenure falls. She also said that the trust will make use of the database maintained by SSNIT for this purpose.

A representative of National Union of Ghana students expressed his heartfelt thanks for and on behalf of the association. It is also learned that this idea is now well received by student community after initial apprehensions were sorted out.