An investigative report by The Fourth Estate has brought to light instances where scholarships are awarded to well-connected individuals and their relatives, contradicting the Scholarship Secretariat’s core mission of assisting academically gifted yet financially challenged students.

In an interview with Umaru Sanda Amadu on Face to Face on Citi TV, the Ranking Member of the Education Committee in Parliament proposed the creation of a centralized body for scholarships.

Furthermore, he recommended that the oversight responsibility of the Scholarship Secretariat be separated from the authority of the Presidency.

“Scholarship regime should be streamlined, GETFund is awarding scholarships, there’s Scholarship Secretariat, we should have one authority, where all other agencies or companies will subscribe to it. If the Ghana Investment Promotion Center is going to use maybe 1% of its turnover to sponsor education, then they should give it to the authority that will be managing the scholarships on behalf of the government.

“GETFund maybe your percentage goes to the authority. Once we have it under the presidency as we have now, it will be manipulated. We need to take it away from the office of the presidency and make it an authority,” he opined.

He conveyed his conviction that fairness would be achieved once an authority is established.

“To a very large extent, I believe there will be fairness in that.”