Mahama launches free tertiary education for PWDs today

President John Dramani Mahama is set to launch the Free Tertiary Education Initiative for Persons With Disabilities today, 24th October, 2025.

The social intervention will ensure that the academic fees of Persons With Disabilities (PWD) who are enrolled in the various public universities, colleges of education, and other training institutes are fully covered by the government.

The initiative, which is under the Ministry of Education, will be run by the Students Loan Trust Fund, the government agency currently managing the administration’s flagship No Fees Stress Policy.

It will come off at the Accra College of Education at 2:00 pm, where government officials, educators, and beneficiaries will converge to hear President Mahama follow through on yet another campaign pledge.

In its 2024 manifesto, the National Democratic Congress committed to providing free tertiary education for all individuals living with disabilities (PWDs), a pledge which was reiterated by the president during his State of the Nation’s Address earlier this year.

Unlike the No Fees Stress Policy, the promise for PWDs was not limited to just first-year students; the wording stated “free tertiary education for all individuals living with disabilities.”

For non-PWD first-year students, the “No-Academic-Fees” pledge applies to first-years only and not explicitly for continuing years in the public tertiary sector.

In June this year, Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu set up a committee to chart a roadmap for the implementation of free tertiary education for Persons with Disabilities (PWDs).

The eight-member committee was co-chaired by Deputy Minister for Education, Dr. Clement Apaak, and National President of the Ghana Federation of Disability Organizations (GFD), Mr. Joseph Atsu Hormadzi.