Technical Students Union Demand Release Of Their Loans

The Ghana National Union of Technical Students has called on the government to intervene and ensure that the Student Loan Trust Fund releases their fees.

The group is made up of students from the various technical universities across the country.

According to the student union, the delay in the payment of the loan grant this semester is having an adverse effect on their lives in school.

The Public Relations Officer of the Union, Addae Micheal Nyametease, spoke to Citi News on the matter.

“None of our students have received the loan. Initially, when you apply for the loan, you get it within two weeks. But now it's been two months since they applied and they are yet to receive the loan. Now how do you expect that student to sit in class and listen to lectures with peace? They will struggle to pursue their academics.”

“All that we are telling the government is that we want to remind them that it is the government's responsibility to foot certain students' bill. The government needs to develop that human capital,” he stated.

The Students Loan Trust Fund is a Government agency established in 2005 to give subsidized loans to Ghanaian tertiary students pursuing programmes in accredited institutions.

Student Loan Trust publishes over 31,000 names of defaulters

But the Secretariat has been complaining about the significant number of loan defaulters.

SLTF in 2016 published names of over 31,000 persons who took loans from it but have defaulted in paying back.

Some of the names published on its website at the time were said to have defaulted for close to ten years.

The Trust also threatened to publish the names in the national dailies if such persons refuse to make payments.