Sabah Zita Benson, Ghana’s High Commissioner to the UK/Ireland, has once again exposed the irregularities uncovered in scholarship arrangements for Ghanaian students studying in the UK under the former Akufo-Addo government.
According to Sabah Zita Benson, the Ghana Scholarship Secretariat funded entire families to study abroad while Students went unpaid.
She disclosed that the Ghana Scholarship Secretariat were paying monthly stipends for whole families, including spouses and children, because one person was coming to study for an MBA.
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”.
Some netizens reacting to the development stated, “I remember in the eighties West Africa would publish pages the names of Nigerians who had received government scholarships, their subjects and their institutions. I do not recollect the Ghanaian government ever doing so”.
One X user added, “Ghana’s scholarship scandal tells the full story of governance failure.
The NPP spent £8,160 each on spouses and children of beneficiaries’ family trips funded by taxpayers while students went unpaid for up to 40 months, accumulating £35 million in arrears. When those students peacefully protested, they allege they were verbally abused and assaulted by Ghana’s own High Commissioner.
The students trusted Ghana. Ghana failed them twice.
Accountability has no party color”.
“I like this woman, but this achieves nothing if the people responsible don’t get prosecuted.
If you know all these things, why won’t you send the documents to the AG for prosecution?”, an X user added.
One last X user added, “Hmmm everyday citizens are struggling to afford basic healthcare, good roads, and public schools, yet state funds are being handed out like pocket money for unmerited foreign stipends and luxury travels.
If an ordinary citizen steals a goat, they face immediate prison. Why should public officials who misappropriate millions get a free pass?
Put people in jail and make them pay it back”.
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_ Hon. Ewurabena Aubynn Donates School Items to Over 500 JHS Graduates 🎒📚👏🏾 #GHnow #fyp ♬ original sound – GHnow
@ghnow_ Beneficiaries Express Gratitude to Hon. Ewurabena Aubynn for the Support 🙏🏾🎒📚 #GHnow #fyp ♬ original sound – NDCMUSICHQ
