A report by The Fourth Estate on scholarship funding has revealed that a significant portion of the programs supported by the Scholarships Secretariat were offered by Ghanaian universities, which typically have lower fees.

This approach could potentially save money and allow more deserving students to benefit from government scholarships.

One beneficiary highlighted in the report is Mathias Abednego Bonir, who received a total of 81,948.46 Canadian dollars (CAD) for a post-graduate certificate in Project Management in 2019 and Human Resource Management in 2020 at the Georgian College in Canada.

The Secretariat spent CAD16,441.13 on his tuition in 2019 and CAD17,507.33 in 2020. Additionally, he received a monthly stipend of CAD2,000 during his studies.

His monthly stipend alone amounted to GHS19,700, which could have covered the full tuition (GHS17,696) for a Master of Science in Project Management at the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA).

The total fees and stipend for Mr. Bonir's two programs could have covered the fees for 45 MSc Project Management students at UPSA and 39 at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).

The Scholarships Secretariat spent funds on other programs that are available in several Ghanaian universities, including:

MSc Computer Science: GBP15,800

Masters of Law (LLM): GBP16,850

MSc Project Management: GBP17,550

MSc Accounting and Finance: GBP17,900

MSc Business Administration: CAD35,100

MSc in Marketing: GBP16,500

MSc in Banking and Finance: GBP 17,355

MSc in Information Technology: GBP 21,000

MA Communication Studies: USD16,130

MSc Management: GBP16,200