Future Leaders Education Assistance Plan launched

Accra, Aug 21, GNA- Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning on Thursday said higher education should be Ghanaians' priority if the country is to be recognised as a middle level income nation in the future.

He said the New Economic Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) has identified educational sector as a priority because the overall quality of education in Africa has continued to deteriorate. Mr Osafo- Maafo said this in an address read for him by one of his deputies, Mr Kweku Agyemang Manu, at the launch of the Future Leaders Education Assistance Plan (FLEAP), a system aimed at assisting parents to pay the fees of their wards from basic to tertiary level.

Only people in permanent and employment can assess the system introduced by Unique Trust Financial Services limited. Mr Osafo-Maafo said NEPAD was working out a detailed action plan that would cover universal primary education by 2015.

The objective is to enable African Countries to achieve the Millennium Development Goal.

He said it was in that respect that the effort being made by Unique Trust to assist parents and guardians to pay their children and wards school fees as very worthy and timely.

Mr Osafo-Maafo expressed the hope that FLEAP would succeed since some brilliant ideas in the past had failed because of the challenges involved in their implementation.

"The challenge to be overcome in the FLEAP implementation and marketing would be to make it accessible, affordable and valuable to the target clientele," he said.

He added that the service providers should ensure that their clients perceive the product as a necessary value link in their wards education. "When the need and value are linked, the product success would be overwhelmingly assured," Mr Osafo-Maafo said.

Mr Prince Kofi Amoabeng, Chief Executive Officer, Unique Trust Financial Services Limited, said the most important form of investment that any individual, family or country could give its future leaders is education.

He said it was for that reason that his out fit was making available up to ten per cent of its funds meant for loans to assist parents and guardians to invest in the education of their wards at a monthly interest of about 4.5 per cent with payment spread over three to nine months.