The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has promised that if re-elected in this year’s elections, tertiary students will no longer need to provide guarantors before accessing student loans.
The Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, said during the unveiling of the 2020 manifesto document of the NPP on Saturday, August 22 that students will only require to provide their national Identity Card to access the loans.
He explained that currently, the status quo requires that students provide Social Security and National Security Trust (SSNIT) contributors as guarantors before that can access the loan.
But, he said, many people are unwilling to put their pension contributions on the line hence, fail to serve as guarantors for the needy students.
This has resulted in untold hardships for a lot of tertiary students but Dr Bawumia said this situation will be no more in the next NPP government.
He, therefore. asked Ghanaians to vote for President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and the NPP in this year’s polls.
“There is also a bottleneck that we are trying to address because when the senior high school students graduate many of them will want to go for tertiary education. And we have to facilitate their ability to access tertiary education.
“So we have a major promise, a policy initiative which will say that all tertiary students, except teacher and nursing trainees who will be on allowances, but all tertiary students will now be able to get the option to obtain a student loan without the requirement of a guarantor.
“The problem facing tertiary students is that the current scheme asks for guarantors and a lot of people are not willing to put their pensions on the line. So many students are not able to access the loan.
“So, you don’t need a guarantor, all you need is national ID card. You will get one year grace period before you start paying.”
By Laud Nartey|3news.com|Ghana