Petition On The Late Payment Of The Students Loan

29 September 2009
The Chairman
SSNIT BOARD
Ghana.

Dear Sir,

PETITION: ON THE LATE PAYMENT OF THE STUDENTS LOAN

The framers of the law covering the granting of loan to students especially in the tertiary arena had the interests of the less privileged and those whose parents earned less than GH¢50 a month in mind. The ambition of the loan is to:

• Subsidize student's fees.
• To aid students' to purchase study materials among others.

However, for sometime now the loan comes late and has frustrated the aim it is meant to achieve.

This could even explain why some students get deferred due to their inability to fulfill their full payment of the school fees. Over three hundred (300) students were reported to have deferred their various programs in the University of Ghana, Legon during the beginning of the 2008/2009 academic year, due to their inability to pay and finish the payment of their school fees. With regards to the other institutions the situation may be the same.

With the late arrival of the student's loan for the first semester of the 2009/2010 academic year, the frustration written on the faces of the beneficiaries is more pronounced as they watch their colleagues escape into the shadows of deferment and hardships.

By this petition;
• We call on your office to facilitate the disbursement of the loan immediately.

• To put up a working mechanism that will serve as an alternative way of making the money available to students in the event of late processing.

• To see to the restructuring of the money under disbursement in order to meet the urgencies of the changing circumstances. Thus, the current GH¢190 for students in the Humanities and GH¢210 for students in the Sciences for a semester is just meager and structurally flawed since it makes no room for future developments in relation to the increment of tuition fees of our various tertiary institutions.

• To change the board if members cannot identify between want and luxury since students especially those benefiting from the loan, at the beginning of every academic year, find themselves on the threshold of fate and failure, deferment and continuation of their various programs. This is frustrating and begs a fundamental question thus; whether the people place in positions of trusts, responsibility and confidence are and can fight for the interests of the ordinary person?

• Finally, the various persons in charge of processing of the loan in the various universities and polytechnics must be well coordinated.

We are counting on your immediate response.

Thank you.

………SIGNED……………….. ……SIGNED………………………..

AUSTIN BRAKO JACOB SHAMATEY

(CHIEF PETITIONER) (CO-PETITIONER)

TEL: +233 242628164 TEL: +233 242531429

UNIVERSITY OF GHANA, LEGON UNIVERSITY OF GHANA, LEGON

Cc: THE PRESIDENT OF GHANA
THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION
ALL VICE CHANCELLORS
ALL REGISTRARS
NATIONAL UNION OF GHANA STUDENTS
ALL SRC PRESIDENTS
MEDIA HOUSES
ALL NOTICE BOARDS