The Chief Executive Officer of the Student Loan Trust Fund (SLTF), Mrs Kokui Adu, has urged students to look up to the Trust as the nationally recognized institution that provided Ghanaians equal access in tertiary institutions.
She said the Trust had created offices on most campuses of tertiary institutions in the country to enable students easily access their loans to help cater for their educational needs.
Speaking at a press conference in Accra, Mrs Adu announced that the application process for the 2012/2013 academic year started in October last year and would continue throughout the academic year.
She said students attending public universities, accredited private universities/ colleges and all the 10 polytechnic were eligible to apply for the loan through a testing methodology which was used to identify the needs of each individual.
“SLTF will still continue to enhance the terms and conditions of the loans, while simplifying the loan application processes for students in need of assistance.”
Mrs Adu said since the SLTF took over the management of students loans from SSNIT in 2006 under the SLTF Act 820, some 50,000 students had joined the scheme.
She said the first batch of students of the scheme who graduated for 2009 and were mostly polytechnic students were due to commerce the repayment of their loans adding that a loan repayment and recovery unit had been established to ensure a smooth process.
Mrs Adu said there was effective collaboration with major stake holders and constituents such as SSNIT, partner banks, the Controller and Accountant General’s Department and employers in both the public and private sectors as part of their loan recovery strategy.
“The SLTF Act 2011, (Act 820, section 26) which gives legal backing to our operations has been enforced,” she said.
Mrs Adu said the financial year 2012 was significant in the life of the SLTF mainly because it “served as our first full year of recovery and had come to be the benchmark year for evaluating our performance.”
At the close of the first full year of recovery, 31st December 2012, a total of GHȼ 2,064,826 was collected in payments from 3,513 borrowers with collections exceeding 43.4 per cent.
Mrs Adu said 895 borrowers had paid their loans in full over the period with 25 percent out of the 17 per cent female borrowers having paid all their loans in full. Eighty-three percent of all borrowers are males.
She said a total of 987guarantors had also been released following the completion for loan repayment by respective borrowers.
She said the first batch of university students and two batches of polytechnic students were due for loan repayment this year adding that the number of borrowers expected to service their loans were numbered 26,240.
“……The total loan due for collection in 2013 stands at GHȼ 8.5million and a target of GHȼ5.5 million has been set,” she added.
Mrs Adu said that robust recovery structures such as frequent communication with borrowers, good records management, tracing, locating, billing and monitoring of loan repayments had been put in place to ensure effective loan recovery from borrowers.
She said loans of 20 borrowers who had died had been written under the newly introduced student loan protection scheme under the Fund.
