The presidential candidate of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama, has reacted to the latest expose by the Fourth Estate on how over 400 million cedis worth of scholarships were awarded to people with high political connections.
The former president slammed the Secretariat for awarding the scholarships to politically connected and affluent individuals.
Addressing a student forum at the Wisconsin University in Accra, Mr. Mahama urged the secretariat to target more underprivileged and deserving applicants.
The publication by the New Sport indicated that in 2019–2020, the Scholarship Secretariat spent at least £291,480, $146,502 (USD), and $7,685 (CAD), respectively, on influential individuals and associates of the political elite.
Reacting to this, Mr. Mahama said that under the previous NDC administration, the scholarships were given to people who deserved them and not the affluent.
“From Prof. Mills’ time till when I was in office, we skewed a lot of the scholarship to students who were going to learn about petroleum sector, oil management, oil sector law and so on and so forth. There are many students who got those scholarships and are back here in Ghana and working. And so we must draw the lines, we must have a minister like Naana Jane Opoku Agyemang who will make sure that the scholarships we are giving are scholarships that are relevant to the human resource development of this country.
“The scholarships must go to underprivileged people, young people who come from backgrounds which do not have the capacity to sponsor them. The social construct of the person’s origin should be taken into consideration before a scholarship is given,” he said.
Source: rainbowradioonline.com
