An investigative report by the Fourth Estate has unveiled the challenges faced by Ghanaian students studying abroad through the government-funded scholarship program.The expose sheds light on financial struggles, delayed fund disbursements, and oversight discrepancies within the system.Numerous students have spoken out about their hardships, including difficulties in meeting fee deadlines due to delayed government funding.

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The report also highlights cases of double benefits awarded to some beneficiaries and instances where students were allowed to continue studies beyond their initial program duration.Roberta Nti, one student, expressed her initial optimism upon receiving the scholarship but shared her ordeal of financial instability after the initial stipend was not followed by promised regular payments.

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Roberta Nti (not her real name) thought she had it all figured out financially when she was awarded a scholarship to study for a Master’s Degree in the United Kingdom (UK).She arrived at the university in London full of hope. The receipt of her first stipend of about 2,000 pounds from the Scholarship Secretariat helped her to settle in a bit. She was told she would be receiving more of such stipends every quarter. But that was it.

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The first was the last.“I thought I was going to focus only on my studies, have my stipend regularly to take care of my needs, but now it’s hell,” Roberta said.“The stress I had to endure before my fees were paid, it took the school shutting me out of their system and sending threatening messages to report me to the Home Office before the Scholarship Secretariat paid [my fees].

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”In the expose, it was discovered that some beneficiaries of the scholarship initiative have been awarded double scholarship benefits.“Another beneficiary, Kieve Kuuku Kittoe, received USD38,475 for an MA in Design Management at Savanna College in the United States in 2019. The following year, Mr Kittoe also received GBP14,500 for an MA in Visual Communication at the University of Derby in the UK.

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”Fourth Estate a non-profit, public interest and accountability investigative journalism project of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)

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