A member of Parliament’s Education Committee and MP for Offinso North, Fred Kyei Asamoah, on behalf of the Minority on the Committee has issued an urgent call for government intervention to address a severe financial crisis affecting Ghanaian scholarship beneficiaries studying abroad.
The Minority Committee on Education expressed grave concern over distressing reports indicating that government-sponsored students in various countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, are facing imminent eviction, deregistration, and potential deportation. At the heart of this escalating crisis, according to the committee, is the government’s failure to honor its financial commitments through the Ghana Scholarship Secretariat.
Established in January 1960 as an extra-ministerial agency under the Office of the President, the Scholarship Secretariat was conceived as a strategic response to Ghana’s post-independence development agenda. Its core mandate was to ensure that financially disadvantaged Ghanaians could access tertiary and professional education, particularly in disciplines critical for national development, often pursued outside the country.
The secretariat was envisioned not merely as an administrative body, but as a moral and policy instrument for social mobility, national equity, and human capital development.
The Member of Parliament recalled that in 2017, the then-NPP government inherited a substantial outstanding debt of approximately $57.5 million at the time. “However, instead of suspending support, the then government acted decisively to clear these debts and ensure the continuity of education for Ghanaian students abroad,” he stated.
The current situation is particularly dire for over 180 Ghanaian students in the United States, who are reportedly on the verge of being ejected from university housing, deregistered for the Fall 2025 semester, and stripped of their student visa status. Many have already been forced to begin paying their rent under dire circumstances. Equally alarming are reports emerging from students in the United Kingdom and Eastern Europe facing similar threats, with some already skipping meals and unable to afford basic necessities, all while shouldering the immense psychological burden of academic performance in foreign lands.
The Minority Committee on Education say they appeal to the Government , specifically through the Office of the President, the Ministry of Education, and the Ghana Scholarship Secretariat, to immediately initiate payment plans, restore open communication channels with affected institutions, and release necessary funds to regularize the status of Ghanaian scholarship beneficiaries abroad.
They further implored the Office of the President to treat this matter with the utmost urgency, emphasizing the need to prevent bureaucratic silence from derailing the future of hundreds of the nation’s brightest minds.
“This is not a partisan matter,” Asamoah asserted. “This is about our young people, our human capital base, and Ghana’s moral standing in the global community. No nation committed to development can, in good conscience, watch while its scholars abroad are subjected to radical hardship and potential deportation.”
He concluded with a pointed clarification; “Let us be clear, these students did not smuggle themselves into foreign countries. The Government of Ghana selected them, issued formal letters of sponsorship, and assured them of the State’s support. To now renege on this promise is not just a breach of contract but also a profound betrayal of trust.”
Story By: Eugenia Ewoenam Osei
