Government Will Meet Financial Obligations To Run Northern Scholarship

Tamale, May 19, GNA - Government on Saturday said it was determined to be current on the payment of feeding grants for beneficiaries of the Northern Scholarship to prevent schools from closing down for lack of funds to feed students.

Mr Kingsley Agyemang, Registrar of the Scholarship Secretariat, who gave the assurance during training for school heads and bursars in Tamale, said the government had therefore cleared the arrears of the Northern Scholarship leaving only that of the last term of the academic year.

The training, attended by school heads and bursars drawn from the Northern Region, was to build capacity of participants on how to strengthen their internal control mechanisms for smooth implementation of the Free Senior High School programme.

It was also to address bottlenecks with regard to the administration of the Northern Scholarship, which caters for feeding and school fees of students of second cycle institutions in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions.

Mr Agyemang said the government's determination to be current on the payment of the Northern Scholarship demonstrated its commitment to education in the country adding 'This is the first time in 10 years since the government owes the Northern Scholarship for just a term'.

He said the Scholarship Secretariat was currently waiting for schools under the Northern Scholarship to bring their claims urging them to submit their claims early for prompt payment.

Mr Agyemang also spoke about stipends paid to students on government's scholarship abroad saying 'Government does not owe in terms of stipends for 2017 and it is unprecedented in the history of bilateral scholarships.'

He said for this year, stipends for January to March had been paid; therefore government only owed only that April.

He said 'Going forward, the Scholarship Secretariat has resolved to be paying arrears of students on quarterly basis, so as we speak, we are preparing towards the possibility of making second quarter payments in the first week of July.'

Headmasters and bursars at the training commended the government for being current on payment of the Northern Scholarship grants, which meant that schools would not have to close down due to lack of funds to feed students.