About 20 Ghanaian students on government scholarships risk being thrown out onto the streets after the expiration of their rent payments. The students who arrived in the UK last September say they were only given some 2000 pounds with the promise of being given some more funds after they have sent details of their account information to the GETFUND.
Spokesperson for the group of students; majority of who are studying at the University of Dundee; Tahiru Hakeem told Citi News numerous calls they have made to the GETFUND have proved futile.
Below is the content of the letter from their accommodation agents
Despite several reminders, your rent of 1,550 pounds remains outstanding. If we do not here from you within four days, your file will be referred to our legal department for collection proceedings
A second late payment charge of 30 pounds has now been added to your account. We urge you to pay immediately as you will be liable for all cause of action and any judgment we obtain can affect your credit rating.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Foreign Affairs designate, Hannah Tetteh stated during her vetting last week that when approved, she will use her office to ensure that Ghanaian students abroad do not go through these problems by making the Minister of Finance pay up.
“It goes back to managing our finances in a prudent manner and making sure that the resource envelope is not over stretched by projects and programmes that were not budgeted for,” she said.
Hon Tetteh further disclosed, “Once the Ministry of finance is able to handle this process for us in a much more proactive manner, we should also be able to provide our students with the resources and not have them go through this embarrassment.”
“I will do everything in my power to harass the minister of finance to make sure that the ministry of foreign affairs receives its full allocation so we reduce these instances to the barest minimum,” she added.
Source: GhanaWeb
