No Fees Stress: All eligible students have received up-to-date payments – Education Minister

The Minister for Education, Haruna Iddrisu, says all eligible beneficiaries under the government’s No Fees Stress programme have received their payments without any outstanding arrears.

Addressing Parliament on Thursday, the minister dismissed concerns about delays in disbursements and assured lawmakers that the programme was being adequately funded by the government.

“There is no outstanding obligation in respect of No Fees Stress for 2024/2025 and 2025/2026. The Honourable Minister for Finance has made releases adequately to the Student Loan Trust, which is executing the ‘No Fees Stress’, and Free Tertiary Education for Persons with Disabilities. What we do is authentication,” Mr Iddrisu said.

He explained that the Ministry of Education’s role is to verify and authenticate beneficiary details while the Students Loan Trust Fund (SLTF) undertakes the implementation and payment processes.

The No Fees Stress policy is a flagship initiative of President John Dramani Mahama’s administration that covers academic and facility user fees for first-year students admitted to public tertiary institutions.

The intervention is intended to remove financial barriers and ensure that qualified students can begin their studies without worrying about upfront costs.

The programme is administered by the SLTF and also caters for students on fee-paying programmes that do not have regular-track equivalents, with eligible beneficiaries receiving reimbursements of up to GH¢2,500.

During his address, Mr Iddrisu also announced a major financial intervention for technical universities across the country.

“The GETFund will make an initial allocation of 10 million Ghana cedis to support each of the technical universities across the country, totalling 100 million Ghana cedis,” he told Parliament.

The allocation is expected to strengthen infrastructure development, improve teaching and learning facilities, and support the expanding mandate of technical universities in producing industry-ready graduates.

The minister said the government remains committed to expanding access to higher education through targeted interventions that reduce the financial burden on students and their families.

The No Fees Stress policy forms part of broader efforts to improve equity in tertiary education by ensuring that economic hardship does not prevent qualified students from enrolling and completing their studies, while complementary initiatives continue to support persons with disabilities and strengthen institutions across the country.