In 2016, the minimum amount was increased from GH¢650 to GH¢1,000 and the maximum from GH¢1,600 to GH¢2.000.

The loan is meant to defray personal expenses, including fees, the cost of boarding, lodging, books, equipment and for other purposes that may be necessary for the borrowers’ courses of study.

The Senior Communications Manager of the trust, Mr George Laing, told the Daily Graphic that the amount was adjusted to meet the increase in fees by tertiary institutions.

“The fees are not static and go up every year. If we don’t adjust it, it will not be helpful to the beneficiaries,” he explained.

He said to determine how much a student qualified for; the trust did a need testing, which determined a student’s socio-economic background.

He, however, declined to give the pointers, saying they were not for public consumption.

Recoveries
Currently, there are about 90,000 student beneficiaries on the SLTF’s portfolio.

According to its figures, it attracted an average of 15,000 new borrowers per academic year in the 2014/2015, 2016/2016 and 2016/2017 academic years.

On recoveries, the Principal Manager of Operations of the fund, Mr Isaac Kofi Abbew Nkrumah, said the trust was not doing badly, stating that on an annual basis, the trust recovered at least 60 per cent of its target.

“We have put in place all the necessary structures for recoveries. When you are due for repayment, we query your SSNIT database and find out where you are working and then contact the employer to arrange for monthly deduction,” he said.

He said as part of the loan recovery programme, the trust would from next year partner the National Service Secretariat to orient service personnel yet to be posted on how to repay the loan. ‘’In our database, we have voluntary repayment, which is done by people who are not due but are paying and it is quite appreciating, Mr Nkrumah indicated.

In June last year, the SLTF published the names of 31,223 people who had collected loans to the tune of GH¢78 million from it and had defaulted in payment.

Some of the names published on its website were said to have defaulted for close to 10 years.

The Trust is threatening to publish those names in the dailies if the defaulters fail or refuse to make payments.

Qualification
As part of the consideration for the student loan, prospective applicants will need to ensure that both their institutions and programmes will make them eligible for the loan.

To be able to access the loan, the trust considers whether the school of the applicant is a tertiary institution accredited by the National Accreditation Board, programmes being offered are accredited by NAB and whether the student is a Ghanaian.

Guarantor
An applicant also needs a guarantor who must be a Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) contributor, recognised religious body, metropolitan, municipal and district assembly or corporate body, which is a member of the Ghana Club 100 and listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange.

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Source: Graphic Online

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