Ghanaian students in China have received funds - NUGS

Mr Jay Hyde, President, National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) on Thursday said it had in collaboration with NUGS China, supervised the payment of monies to Ghanaian students in Wuhan China by government.

He said $500 had been payed to 99 per cent of 344 students by the Government of Ghana to students held in the Hubei province of Wuhan China to support their upkeep following the outbreak of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the region.

He said “no Ghanaian student in China is under any conditions which may cause us to worry” as a team of counsellors and psychologists had been allotted to help students in distress.

He said this at a press engagement held in Accra to address issues students faced in relation to Coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China and the Payment of Student Loans by the Student Loan Trust Fund (SLTF) on Thursday.

He commended the effort of NUGS Executives, China, over the past weeks since the outbreak amidst sleepless nights, conference calls and media engagements and urged them to ‘please keep on until we win the fight against COVID-19’.

The group called on government to draft a more comprehensive strategy to show a more consistent concern about their plight and map up weekly surveillance on the Ghanaian student community in China just as the Chinese Government was doing daily by checking for their vitals.

“We expect the government to intensify screening exercises at the Nation’s boarders to prevent chances of an outbreak,” he said.

“The Ghanaian Embassy or diplomatic missions should be in a position to go into the affected places to take surveillance responsibilities. It is simply not enough to say because they have food, water and protective gears, they’re safe,” he said.

He said NUGS proposes a joint situational report from Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Health, and Ghana Health Service, to be issued to the media through a press encounter or publication in order to keep relevant research institutions and bodies abreast with the current status of Ghanaian nationals abroad.

“We urged them to collaborate with embassies in these countries in order to have accurate data on the health status of Ghanaians there,” he said.

The NUGS President speaking on Student Loans said, beneficiaries of the SLTF had not received payments for the past two semesters but were counting on the Ministry of Finance to redeem its promise to release a ten million Ghana Cedis Cheque by Friday, February 28 to be disbursed by Monday, March 2nd.

He said in view of the assurance they had called off their intended demonstration scheduled for March 10, “we once again hope they keep to their promise”.