Youth Development and Empowerment Minister George Opare Addo says the government is putting an end to the long-standing abuse of Ghana’s scholarship system, which he likened to selling tomatoes in a market.
Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express, Mr Opare Addo said a new scholarship bill currently before Parliament is intended to fix deep structural flaws, as exposed by investigative work from The Fourth Estate.
He explained that the absence of a standardised procedure had allowed scholarship awards to be driven by personal connections rather than merit.
“The committee I chaired, with Haruna Iddrisu as co-chair, set out to fix the chaos,” he said. “We did not have a standard procedure for administering scholarships — it was about whom you know.”
He emphasised that scholarships were originally intended for “brilliant but needy students,” or to fill national manpower gaps, such as the one Ghana faced after discovering oil.
Instead, the process, he said, was hijacked and corrupted.
“How scholarships were administered was like selling tomatoes in the market,” he noted. “People would go and say, ‘Ah, let me pay ¢10 or ¢20,’ based on the investigations The Fourth Estate conducted.”
The Minister also criticised the fragmented nature of scholarship administration, currently spread across multiple bodies including GNPC, GETFund, and the Scholarship Secretariat.
“We need a scholarship regime where, if GNPC and GETFund have funding, it is pooled into one scholarship fund, and managed by a central authority,” he said.
He was emphatic that it is inappropriate for an agency like GNPC to be administering scholarships when a national body already exists to oversee such matters.
“Ever since Ghana gained independence, we’ve had no proper scholarship law. There was no legislation guiding how scholarships should be administered,” he stated.
The new bill, he explained, aims to create uniform criteria for eligibility and a transparent application process.
“So that when I’m applying for a scholarship, I know the criteria, I know what I must meet, and how I should apply,” he said.
Mr Opare Addo also raised concerns about public funds being used to sponsor students abroad for programs already available in Ghana.
He questioned the rationale for funding students to study business administration abroad when “the University of Ghana Business School is one of the best in the sub-region.”
“We can fund you to go to the University of Ghana Business School if that’s the course you want to pursue,” he said, noting that the bill proposes to limit state sponsorship for foreign studies in such cases.
He warned that consistently choosing foreign institutions over local ones sends the wrong signal.
“What it means is that we have no hope, no confidence in our own institutions,” he said. “Even some of the schools our students leave Ghana to attend — when you compare their pedigree to UG, KNUST, or UCC — you ask yourself: are we serious at all?”
On whether scholarships could apply to private universities in Ghana, the Minister said yes, especially where such institutions offer programs not available at public universities.
“Some of the things Ashesi University is doing — if there’s a need to fund students — we should consider it,” he said.
He added that cost will remain a key factor, but keeping funds within the local economy makes economic sense.
“Why should I send a student out of Ghana when Ashesi can do it?” he asked. “Why not give the money to a Ghanaian entrepreneur and keep it circulating within Ghana?”
Source: Abubakar Ibrahim
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