President John Mahama
Google search engine

President John Mahama on July 4 launched the ‘No Fees Stress’ policy in Koforidua.

The initiative waives academic user fees for all first-year students in public tertiary institutions across the country. It fulfills a key campaign promise from John Mahama during the 2024 elections and aligns with his broader reset Ghana agenda aimed at alleviating financial pressure on vulnerable families and empowering the younger generation.

The policy has already seen substantial uptake.

Data from the Student Loan Trust Fund reveals that nearly 130,000 students had registered online by mid-June with over 100,000 completing the application process.

For the Student Loan Trust Fund, this is the beginning of improved student loans livelihood.
“We are also preparing ladies and gentlemen to roll out the Students Loan Plus initiative at the beginning of the 2025-2026 academic year. This initiative helps us to provide comprehensive support for continuing students to ensure that the barriers that constrain access to equal opportunities are removed,” the administrator of the SLTF said
 
Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu said a major cabinet decision will hit Parliament in the coming days.

“Next year the GetFund will double its allocation to the Student Loan Trust from GHC70 million to GHC150 million to support students who may want to access it further,” he announced.

“I will next week on your behalf in honor of one of your campaign promises lay the Scholarship Authority Bill before Parliament to deal with the nepotism, cronyism that was associated with the award of scholarship,” the Education Minister stated.

Launching the policy that has seen some 15,000 students already receiving their fees, the President justified why he mooted the idea.

“School had opened he had not gone to register because his family had not yet harvested their crops to sell and be able to raise the money for him to go. So again, we had to intervene and sort out the academic year. We had to for the young man to go to school, so we realized that these are not isolated stories these are real stories of people. He said there must be no difficulty for any student entering tertiary going forward,” President Mahama noted.

He added that, “Behind each number I mentioned is a face and a dream deferred. Tertiary education is not just about a certificate it is the engine that powers a modern society. It is the engine that creates teachers, doctors, engineers, scientists entrepreneurs and public servants.

It spares innovation, it deepens civic responsibility and fosters national identity. Students in fee paying programs without regular track equivalents will receive a reinvestment of up to GHC2,500 for their academic fees. This policy is complementary. It’s not substitutionary.”

The President further noted that, “It does not replace existing allowances and loans, but it lightens the heaviest burden that is the cost of entry that keeps thousands of brilliant students outside the gates of institutions like this. This policy is not about welfare it is about fairness, it is about restoring dignity to the Ghanaian student. It is about affirming that the right to education is not a privilege for only the wealthy, but it’s a shared national inheritance.

 

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR