Sabah Zita Benson, Ghana’s High Commissioner to the UK/Ireland, has lifted the lid on irregularities in scholarship arrangements uncovered under the Ghana Scholarship Secretariat during the former Akufo-Addo government.
According to Sabah Zita Benson, the Ghana Scholarship Secretariat funded entire families to study abroad while Students went unpaid, spending around £90,000 on visas, airfare, and yellow fever cards, plus £8,160 monthly per family member for the spouse and three children.
Sabah Zita Benson provided documents containing the allegations disclosing that the children and spouses of scholarship beneficiaries also received medical coverage and other benefits allegedly worth about £90,000.
She also stressed that each of the children of the scholarship recipients received about £8,160 as financial support while accompanying their parents.
Sarbah Zita Benson detailed documents from the prior NPP administration showing such family-inclusive awards as part of broader mismanagement that led to over £37 million in student payment arrears.
Speaking in an interview, Sabah Zita Benson stated, “These are documents from the Ghana Scholarship Secretariat, and if you see the rot, you will be amazed. All these are scholarship documents that I received from the Ghana Scholarship Secretariat.
I cringed reading these documents. The rot that happened under the former Registrar. This particular one is one woman. I don’t want to mention names. I’ll say Princess. She gets a scholarship and goes with her three children”.
She added, “The children are paid to come and stay with their mother to study, and her spouse, her husband. And so, this one, for instance, has three children. She is enrolled in a master’s degree programme.
“She gets paid for the master’s programme with stipends. Her husband gets paid to come and support his wife in studying. Together with their three children, that’s another child, a baby, also a scholarship student”.
Sarbah Zita Benson further added, “I’ll tell you, they pay for their airfare. So for the four, their visas, yellow card, yellow fever card, ticket, comes to about £90,000. And every month, the three children, their husband, everybody – not all of them – each gets £8,160 to support the mother to study. Do you think that is fair to the taxpayer of Ghana?
She further called on the National Investigation Bureau (NIB) to move fast to investigate the allegations and ensure that individuals found culpable refund every penny.
“That is why NIB must move fast, make arrests, and make people pay for this. People must be funded. If you get a scholarship and you think that you are a wife and you are not ready to move away from your husband or your children, then they stay in Ghana and study,” she added.
Why should my taxes be paid to take care of you to come and read MBA in London? When you are coming, you bring your whole flock, including your husband. Where the husbands not working?
The husbands who got it and came with their wives. The wives what were they doing? The children are moving out of school. One year, the children are coming to study; the whole family is relocated. This is why the scholarship secretariat could not pay these debts”.
In related news, Sabah Zita Benson, some weeks ago, also shared documents that have gone viral detailing scandalous infractions at the Ghana Scholarship Secretariat under the immediate past Registrar of Scholarships, Dr Kingsley Agyemang.
Zita Benson’s document shared showed how the Ghana Scholarship Secretariat shockingly paid £56,000 for a 16-year-old to attend a UK high school, with the document also showing that the sponsorship was for admission in 2022.
The document further disclosed that the government, through the Secretariat, paid an amount of £27,900 for each year as tuition fees.
Zita Benson disclosed that the award of the scholarship was illegal.
“This particular scholarship was given to a 16-year-old to attend a private school (high school level) that will prepare her for a good college, which is outside the mandate of the Scholarship Secretariat.
“… Eventually, we shall clear the mess, but I do hope someone is accountable soon,” she said.
Watch the video below:
@ghnow_ A critic has condemned the reported spending of £90,000 on visas, airfare and Yellow Cards for a scholarship awardee’s spouse and three children, plus £8,000 monthly per person, describing it as “pure cruelty.” #GHnow #fyp ♬ original sound – GHnow
@ghnow_ Pokuase-Nsawam road update #GHnow #fyp ♬ original sound – GHnow
@ghnow_ A man who moved from Navrongo to Accra in search of greener pastures has revealed that he lived inside a steel pipe for three years. #GHnow #fyp ♬ original sound – GHnow
