NUGS on delay in release of students loan

The National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) has expressed displeasure about the delay in the release of money for payments to be made to students under the Student Loan Scheme.

According to NUGS, the inconsistency in the payment of nurses and teacher training allowances following its restoration was also worrying.

The NUGS, has therefore, called on the government, to as a matter of urgency, institute adequate financial preparations to avoid the unnecessary delays adding that should the situation persist, the union would be left with no choice than to embark on a nationwide demonstration.

Addressing a press conference in Accra, the NUGS President, Mr Gombilla Saddique Mohammed said the legion of students who rely on the “hand-to-mouth loans under the Student Loan Scheme are in absolute despondency following the failure of government to disburse monies to the fund.”

According to him, schools has re-opened for 3-months now but the loans had not yet been disbursed to students.

Insensitivity to the plight of students

The student body, he said find that situation to be a blatant disregard and insensitivity to the plight of the poor Ghanaian student whose only source of hope was the loan.

He said although the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Student Loan Trust Fund had given reasons for the delay in payments, those reasons did not portray the reality on the ground because “our checks at other sectors of the economy are indicative of the fact that due considerations have been given to them.”

Teacher and nurses training allowance

On the nurses and teacher training allowances, the NUGS President noted that since President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo restored the nurses and teacher training allowances as a way of fulfilling a campaign promise, the government has not been consistent with the payment.

It was, therefore important, Mr Mohammed said, to make their concerns known to the general public because all attempts to get answers for the delays has so far proven futile despite assurances that payments were going to be on schedule as promised during the re-launch of the allowance in Sunyani.

“Having been a major campaign promise by the current President in the last elections, after being successfully elected into office, one would have expected that, the government would pay seeking attention to issues relating to allowance. The reverse is rather the case,” he observed.