In a Facebook statement, Saadija Shiraaz, Chief Executive Officer of SLTF, announced that the funds were received from the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission, with the final tranche scheduled to arrive on July 29, 2025.

Disbursements began on August 1 based on verified student data.

“We proceeded to pay teacher trainee allowances of five months to 30,157 students in 37 Public Colleges of Education based on the data available to us at the time,” Dr. Shiraaz stated.

She noted that the SLTF is still processing additional data from other Colleges of Education and that payments will continue once verification is complete.

“We are currently receiving more student data from the Colleges of Education, and will pay as soon as that data is received and cleared,” she assured.

Dr. Shiraaz also emphasized the Fund’s commitment to transparency and appealed for patience from students and the public.

“Please indulge us as we go through the necessary operational motions to ensure you receive the support due you from government,” she said, acknowledging the efforts of her team working behind the scenes.

She further disclosed that the SLTF is continuing reimbursements under the No-Fees-Stress initiative, with deadlines extended to ensure all eligible students are covered.

The Fund reaffirmed its commitment to supporting teacher trainees through timely financial assistance and reiterated its openness to feedback and collaboration with stakeholders.

Source: Adomonline.com

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According to the Chief Executive Officer, Saajida Shiraz, as of Tuesday, July 1, loans have been successfully paid to 19,703 students.

Madam Shiraz noted that students in private tertiary institutions—whose academic calendar is more advanced than their counterparts in public institutions—were prioritised in the disbursement.

“The days when the Trust Fund approved loans it couldn’t disburse are over. The revamped SLTF is now working diligently each day to fulfil its mandate of providing timely financial support to students,” she said.

The disbursement comes ahead of the official launch of the ‘No-Fees-Stress’ initiative, scheduled for Friday, July 4, marking a significant shift in the government’s approach to tertiary education financing.

Source: Adomonline.com

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This initiative forms part of the Mahama-led administration’s No-Fees-Stress policy, which is designed to mitigate the financial barriers that hinder Ghanaian students from accessing tertiary education.

“It is a strategic investment by the government in our nation’s human capital development and future competitiveness, and will catalyse Ghana’s quest for accessible and inclusive higher education,” SLTF noted in a statement.

SLTF has pledged its commitment to ensuring the successful roll-out and implementation of this policy.

All applicants have been directed to register at https://www.nofeesstress.sltf.gov.gh or https://www.sltf.gov.gh.

SLTF has explained that the No-Fees-Stress portal offers a streamlined registration process, enabling students to easily provide their information. This allows SLTF to efficiently authenticate their eligibility for government support under this policy.

For extra support or information, interested applicants have been asked to contact 0302751020 or visit any of SLTF’s zonal offices.

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Read the full statement below:

The employees, numbering 98, borrowed from the fund while in school but failed to repay the loans.

Consequently, the police have since given the defaulting employers a lifeline to comply or face court action.

The Daily Graphic learnt that the institutions had already been served by the police to appear before the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service on the issue.

The first phase of the investigations saw the affected institutions being served notice on three occasions but to no avail.

The Chief Executive Officer of the SLTF, Nana Kwaku Agyei Yeboah, said his outfit was determined to recover outstanding loans to ensure that the fund continued to provide financial support to Ghanaian students seeking higher education.

“The SLTF plays a crucial role in promoting access to higher education in Ghana. It is our responsibility to protect the fund’s sustainability, and this includes holding employers accountable for their actions,” he said.

The Deputy Director, Repayment and Resource Mobilisation of SLTF, Rosemary Aryee, said the non-compliance of employers to deduct and pay loans on behalf of their employees had been a long-standing issue that hindered the fund’s ability to sustain the support for students who were currently in school and future generations.

“We have decided to take legal action as a last resort to ensure compliance,” she said.

Section 24 of the SLTF Act 2011 (Act 820) imposes a statutory duty on employers to deduct loan repayments from the salaries of employees who benefitted under the students’ loan scheme and remit same to the trust fund.

Students’ loan is a creature of public policy entrusted to the SLTF, an agency of government under the Students Loan Trust Fund Act 2011, Act 820.

The core mandate of the Trust Fund is to disburse loans to eligible students to cover tuition, accommodation and other educational expenses and recover same when they are due.

However, repayment has become crucial to ensure the sustainability of the fund and to financially support future generations.

The fund said the duty imposed on employers under Section 24, Act 820, was a statutory duty that required strict compliance.

Unlike contractual duty, a statutory duty does not require privity in order to discharge any obligation expected under it.

In other words, once a duty is imposed by law, the bearer does not need to be a party to any contract in order to discharge that duty. 

Effect

“The effect is that employers in Ghana do not need to be a party to a student loan contract in order to deduct students’ loan for repayments purposes.

As noted above, employers are required to deduct loan repayments from the salaries of employees who benefitted from students’ loan and remit these payments to the Trust Fund,” Ms Aryee said.

However, she said that had been a challenge with some employees failing to meet their obligations by reason of employer non-compliance.

“The SLTF has therefore decided to hold such employers accountable under section 37 of Act 820 which provides to the effect that “where an employer fails to deduct and remit students loan repayments to the fund, that employer is liable and directors of that company or partners of that firm are personally liable,” Ms Aryee explained.

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It has, therefore, urged students in various tertiary institutions, especially fresh students, to take advantage of the platform to apply for loans to facilitate their studies.

The Chief Executive Officer of the SLTF, Nana Kwaku Agyei Yeboah, disclosed this in an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra yesterday.

Access

According to him, “tertiary students across the country will be able to access the students’ loan portal either through the organisation’s website or by downloading the Students Loan App”.

He said there were currently 32,744 beneficiaries in 110 tertiary institutions across the country on the fund.

Nana Yeboah said during the last academic year, the fund disbursed about GH¢64,650,000 in loans to 32,744 students.

“It is expected that more than 70,000 new applicants will access the loan for the 2023/2024 academic year,” he said.

In May last year, the fund had to pay the fees of 500 students of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi who were among 6,000 students who had been deferred for failing to pay their fees.

An amount of GH¢1m was paid to the university after the students had signed an undertaking for the fund to pay for both their first and second semester fees.

The 500 beneficiaries were among 2,188 others who had applied for the loans and been verified by the SLTF following their inability to pay their fees.

More than 6,000 students, representing about eight per cent of the 85,256 student population of the KNUST, were asked to defer their courses, in line with the university’s regulations on the non-payment of school fees.

Policy

The ‘no guarantor’ student loan policy was launched by the Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, last year.

Under the policy, a student only needs an admission letter and a Ghana Card to access the loan.

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According to Nana Yeboah, the removal of the guarantor requirement would lead to an increase in the number of students desirous of accessing the loan.

He, therefore, encouraged students to take advantage of the new policy to access subsidised financing for their education.

According to the Head of Public Relations of the Fund, George Ferguson Laing, the idea is to bring the SLTF closer to its borrowers.

“We already have some 14 zonal offices across the country, but these are located on the campuses of major tertiary institutions, to make loan applications easier for students. The two new regional offices on the other hand are in place to cater for former students, whose loans are due for repayment”.

He noted that offices located at airport residential area in Accra, and Adum, Nsuase in Kumasi are centres where borrowers can walk in to make enquiries or make payments towards their loan.

Mr. Laing encouraged borrowers to patronize the various electronic payment platforms that have been made available, to increase the convenience of customers, including payments through mobile money, Ghana.gov and visa or MasterCard.

Mr. Laing said that there has been a surge in the number of students looking to access student loans.

Meanwhile, he urged past beneficiaries of the Fund to repay their loans to enable a new generation of students benefit.

Mr. Laing also encouraged other employers to deduct and repay the loans on behalf of their employees, as stipulated in the Students Loan Trust Fund Act.

He noted that the fund was to prosecute some loan defaulters who have traveled the full term of their loans without making any payments to the SLTF.

In recent days the SLTF has embarked on an intensive recovery drive, encouraging borrowers to repay their loans.