info@businessghana.com
More than 310,000 students have benefitted from the No Fees Stress initiative, a flagship educational grant by the government, with over GH¢1.3 billion allocated to the Student Loan Trust Fund (SLTF) for disbursement for the purpose.
Out of the GH¢1.3 billion received funds, the trust fund has currently disbursed over GH¢830 million, with 152,000 students benefiting last year alone, while 159,750 students have so far received the grant this year.
Speaking during a news conference in Accra last Friday, the CEO of the trust fund, Dr Saajida Shiraz, said the fund was not done with the disbursement, but was targeting more than 173,000 students at the end of the current academic year upon the completion of all the validation processes.
“Till date, we have disbursed about GH¢830 million of the funds to about 310,000 students in total. We did about 152,000 students last academic year, and this year, so far we have done about 159,750 students.
We are targeting more than 173,000 students before the end of the academic year,” she said.
The ‘No Stress Fee’ initiative, part of the government’s No Academic Fee Policy, was launched by President John Dramani Mahama in July 2025.
Among other things, the policy aims to remove financial barriers that prevent qualified students from enrolling in public universities, technical universities, nursing training colleges and colleges of education.
It guarantees free full academic fee payment for all first-year students enrolled in public tertiary institutions.
Another initiative under the No Academic Fee Policy is the Free Tertiary Education for Persons with Disabilities, which involves the full tuition payments and residential fees for all persons with disabilities enrolled at public tertiary institutions.
Dr Shiraz revealed that 1,530 physically challenged students were currently benefiting under that initiative, with government so far expending about GH¢9.3 million.
“This involves free full tuition payments and residential fee coverage paid directly to the schools.
Under the initiative, an advisory has been sent to the tertiary institutions that once the person is physically challenged, they should onboard him or her and send us the bill.
I am aware that the government is further exploring the provision of some stipends and other forms of assistance for such students,” she added.
The trust fund boss explained that the government had made the success of the fund a priority and had committed adequate resources for its smooth operations in order to support students in their quest for tertiary education.
“We have so far received more than GH¢1 billion, and all of that is going towards grant for Ghanaian students.
The government has been very committed in terms of advancing funds to us.
“Regarding our operational expenses, we had very little resources, but this has improved drastically.
The portal we deployed for the implementation of No Fees Stress was built in-house with our resources and expertise,” she added.
She stated that in terms of loans, the trust fund had paid all first semester loan applications from students, including those in private tertiary institutions, with second semester payments currently ongoing.
Again, Dr Shiraz said, the fund also had the Student Loan Plus which allowed applicants to benefit for an average loan sum of GH¢20,000.
“The President gave us a directive to expand coverage to students of the Ghana School of Law, and that is why we introduced the Student Loan Plus.
So far, more than 878 students have benefitted, with about 600 of them from the Ghana School of Law.
On issues relating to delays in the release of funds, ?Dr Shiraz said most of the delays were occasioned by validation of information provided by students, adding that sometimes there were information mismatches between what applicants and the schools provided.
She, however, gave an assurance that the trust fund had developed a transparent system whereby students could track the progress of their application on the funds’ website and the reason for any delays.
