Kofi Asare, the Executive Director for Africa Education Watch, has raised concerns about the low amount disbursed as loans to students in tertiary institutions by the Students Loan Trust Fund (SLTF), describing it as woefully inadequate given the average cost incurred by each student per year.
He highlighted that the average loan amount of about 2,400 cedis, or 1,200 cedis per semester, falls significantly short of the average annual cost of tertiary education, which ranges from 15,000 to 17,000 cedis for humanities and sciences respectively.
According to Asare, this inadequate funding from the SLTF does not serve as a realistic financial buffer for needy students and may not effectively prevent them from dropping out of tertiary education due to financial constraints.
Asare urged the government to ensure that the SLTF receives sufficient resources to provide a more realistic amount of financial assistance to genuinely needy students.
He also noted that the funding architecture for the student loan has not been reviewed since the introduction of the “no-guarantor” policy. While acknowledging the benefits of the policy in expanding access to loans, Asare lamented the lack of adequate funds to support the increasing demand for student loans.
He revealed that in 2023, only about 18,000 out of over 32,000 applicants received approval for loans, and even among those approved, they only received one semester’s tranche of the loan. This indicates a significant gap between the demand for student loans and the available resources to meet that demand.
Overall, Asare called for a review of the funding structure for the SLTF and the provision of adequate resources to ensure that needy students have access to the financial support they require to pursue tertiary education without financial constraints.