The Executive Director of the Institute for Education Studies (IFES), Dr. Peter Anti Partey, believes the manner in which the scholarship secretariat awarded the grant over the past eight years is intriguing.
This follows a report by the Auditor General revealing that living expenses for spouses of some beneficiaries were included in their packages.
According to Dr. Partey, although he’s not surprised by the development, which has characterised the secretariat over the years, he’s taken aback by the amount and the personalities involved.
“Over the past four to eight years, it was really overboard and it’s intriguing to know the names that are in there, the programmes they claim to have gone to undertake, and more interestingly, people taking spousal support and other things,” he said on Ghana Tonight on TV3 Tuesday, September 9, 2025.
Dr. Anti stated that matters surrounding the outfit suggest that “we are just not doing the right things.”
The Registrar of the Ghana Scholarships Secretariat, Alex Kwaku Asafo-Agyei, recently raised concerns about his predecessor, Dr. Kingsley Agyemang’s, administration of scholarships.
Asafo-Agyei has disclosed that the previous administration provided full financial support to spouses and children of some beneficiaries, a practice he described as highly problematic.
“What happened at the Secretariat was that when a student was awarded a scholarship, their wife and children were also added as dependents,” he said on Kumasi-based Nhyira FM.
“The Secretariat paid for their visa processes, air tickets, and even allocated stipends. There are memos with official approval confirming these payments.”
He cited a specific case of a scholarship awarded in January 2022 to Peter Mensah, who pursued an LLM in Law at Brunel University in London.
Documents reviewed by the Secretariat indicated that the package included £17,875 in tuition fees, £16,008 per year in living expenses for Mr Mensah, and £8,160 annually for his spouse, Mrs Gifty Oware Mensah, the former Deputy Director of the National Service Authority.
A letter issued by the Secretariat at the time confirmed that the award covered both the student and his dependents, including tuition, living allowances, and travel costs.
These revelations add to ongoing public concerns about fairness and accountability in the administration of state-sponsored scholarships.
Civil society organisations have long called for reforms to ensure the scheme benefits needy and deserving applicants rather than politically connected individuals.
