{"id":11816,"date":"2025-07-23T09:29:34","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T09:29:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/?p=11816"},"modified":"2025-07-23T09:29:34","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T09:29:34","slug":"over-gh%c2%a2700m-inherited-as-unpaid-scholarship-funds-george-opare-addo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/?p=11816","title":{"rendered":"Over GH\u00a2700m inherited as unpaid scholarship funds \u2013 George Opare Addo"},"content":{"rendered":"

We inherited over GH\u00a2700m in unpaid scholarship funds \u2013 George Opare Addo<\/span><\/p>\n

23 July 2025 9:24am<\/p>\n

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Youth Development and Empowerment Minister has disclosed that the government inherited a staggering GH\u00a2700 million in unpaid scholarship debt.<\/p>\n

George Opare Addo described the situation as a \u201cbad, bad, bad mess\u201d that threatens the future of Ghanaian students abroad and the country\u2019s international standing.<\/p>\n

Speaking on\u00a0PM Express<\/em>\u00a0on JoyNews, the Minister revealed that the debt burden solely from the Scholarship Secretariat has left the new administration scrambling to rescue stranded students and mend broken agreements with foreign institutions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe current bill that I have is over \u00a2700 million in debt that we have to find money to pay,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere is a debt of fees that we have across the world. And so my registrar now has to go around the world and negotiate with schools, and that is what we\u2019ve been undertaking in the last four, five months.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pressure to settle the arrears is relentless.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou keep getting threats all over the world: \u2018We are going to sack your students\u2019. So almost every time he\u2019s out there, pleading, renegotiating how much we can afford and how much we can pay,\u201d the Minister explained.<\/p>\n

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When asked whether the government had the funds to cover the GH\u00a2700 million, the Minister was emphatic that \u201cIt involves Ghanaian students; it involves lives. It involves our citizens. And so we must find the money to pay.\u201d<\/p>\n

He acknowledged that while the country doesn\u2019t have the full amount in cash, negotiations are ongoing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Chief of Staff has been very helpful. With the Finance Minister and the Chief of Staff, we are working closely to offset the debt\u2026 So yes, we will pay, but we have to negotiate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Opare Addo admitted that some of the schools have shown understanding. \u201cThey know that we are a new government that has come in. We inherited these problems, and so we are aligning and fixing them gradually.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also responded to reports of students receiving threats of eviction from their schools. \u201cYou can\u2019t blame this government for the mess we inherited. And most of these things have been outstanding for a year or two.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Ministry has also begun an audit to get a full picture of the obligations. \u201cA lot of the students have opted out. We held a meeting with some of them in London and gave them some options.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although he declined to disclose the options discussed, he revealed a major issue lies with stipends owed to students who have already graduated.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomebody might have finished school for two years, and government still owes him or her stipends, but per the law, once you finish, you must come back home. And a lot of them want to remain there.\u201d<\/p>\n

He emphasised that a continued stay abroad after graduation without returning violates the terms of the scholarship.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIf I pay your fees, you must come back and help. So, do you want to stay? If you are going to stay there, I\u2019m not going to pay your stipends, because you have done with school already.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ongoing audit is expected to reconcile discrepancies in the data.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce the audit team finishes all its work, we\u2019ll have a clearer picture. But as of now, the bill we have seated on our tables is more than over \u00a2700 million.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

DISCLAIMER:\u00a0<\/strong>The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of FISH FM.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We inherited over GH\u00a2700m in unpaid scholarship funds \u2013 George Opare Addo 23 July 2025 9:24am Youth Development and Empowerment Minister has disclosed that the government inherited a staggering GH\u00a2700 million in unpaid scholarship debt. George Opare Addo described the situation as a \u201cbad, bad, bad mess\u201d that threatens the future of Ghanaian students abroad […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123457,"featured_media":11817,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[3723],"class_list":["post-11816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-news","tag-youth-development-and-empowerment-minister"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/123457"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11816"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11818,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11816\/revisions\/11818"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}