The Fourth Estate, a private media organization, has announced its intention to publish the full list of scholarship recipients from 2019 and 2020, as revealed by their investigative report.

The investigation by The Fourth Estate uncovered that scholarships were awarded to influential individuals, as well as children, relatives, and associates of powerful figures.

This was contrary to the Scholarship Secretariat's primary purpose of providing scholarships to academically gifted but financially needy students, both locally and internationally.

Initially denied access to the beneficiary list by the Scholarship Secretariat in March 2021, The Fourth Estate persisted and invoked the Right to Information (RTI) Commission.

The RTI Commission ruled in favor of disclosure, stating that since the scholarships were funded with public money, transparency was crucial. However, personal information will be redacted before the data is released.

The Scholarship Secretariat's response to the RTI request revealed that it had spent GHS237.5 million and GHS200 million in 2019 and 2020, respectively, covering both foreign and local scholarships.

Speaking to the host of the Citi Breakfast Show, Bernard Avle on Citi FM, Seth Kwame Bokpe, a journalist with the Fourth Estate said “There are a little of over 900 people who benefitted from the secretariat and we will be publishing the full list soon and be making the value-for-money analysis.”

Several known members and activists of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) were among those who benefited from the scholarships, including a special assistant to the Second Lady, Samira Bawumia.

The special assistant received GBP17,355 for a university program in the United Kingdom but did not physically attend the campus. Instead, the individual dropped out after attending only a few online classes from Ghana.

Additionally, there were instances of multiple scholarships. Approximately 26 individuals received multiple scholarships, enabling them to pursue different programs either in two consecutive years or different programs within a single year.