Awal Mohamed doesn’t owe us – SLTF management

The Management of the Student Loan Trust Fund (SLTF) says the Public Relations Officer for the Youth Employment Agency (YEA), Awal Mohammed is not among the list of the 20,000 people who benefited from the fund but are refusing to pay.

The Senior Operations Manager in charge of the Repayments and Recovery Unit at the SLTF, Mr Justice Sarkodie, said on the Sunrise Show, an Accra-based 3FM Thursday, November 28 that the database of the Trust Fund does not capture Mr Awal as one of the debtors.

Mr Sarkodie said 55,000 people owe the SLTF GH¢75 million, representing default in the repayment of the loans students took to cushion them while in school.

He said about 35,000 out of that number have made some form of payment, leaving more than 20,000 who have not paid anything at all, after the two-year grace period for repayment elapsed.

The debt standing in the names of those who have not paid anything at all stands at GH¢35 million.

With some of the debts dating as far back as 2012 from the first batch of beneficiaries who took the loan in 2006, the fund managers have warned the borrowers that they will begin to publish the names and pictures of the defaulters in the national dailies in the coming weeks.

One of the names that circulated on social media as one of the debtors was Mr Awal Mohammed.

When Winston Amoah host of the show asked Mr Sarkorde whether or not Mr Awal is one of the debtors, he answered: “Let me use this media platform to say Awal Mohammed is not owing the trust fund.

“He came to us and complained about us sending his name out there. But when we went into our database to find out whether he is in there (we didn’t find his name). I can say he is not owing the Trust Fund.”