Mahama hikes student loans

Government has approved the upward adjustment of student loans administered by the Students' Loan Trust to range from GHS1,000.00 and GHS 2,000.00, President John Dramani Mahama has announced.

He said government had also established Students' Loans plus to cater for needy but brilliant tertiary students throughout the county.

President Mahama announced this when he addressed students of the University of Health and Allied Sciences at the Trafalgar Hall as part of his four-day campaign tour of the Volta Region.

Currently, students who opt for the students loans receive from GHS750.00 and GHS1,000.00.

The increment would therefore empower the students to pay their fees and cater for other needs on their campuses.

President Mahama said education was crucial for human resource development and that was why his administration was spending more than 30 per cent of the National budget on it and called on the students to take advantage of the upwards review of the loans scheme to complete their courses successfully.

On the economy, President Mahama said Ghana had been resolute in spite of the global economic crisis because she was not solely dependent an commodity-based exportations, a situation that stifled trade activity in Nigeria, China, Brazil and Venezuela.

He said government had also put in place a number of fiscal disciplines, which had stabilised the Cedi even in 2016, an election year.

This, he said, was accomplished by the fact that government was shying away from taking any funding from the Central Bank making the economy very resilient against major international currencies in the world.

"Government is receiving zero financing from the Bank of Ghana as part of our fiscal discipline we are exhibiting to avoid the perennial financial deficits that the country faced after every general election."

He explained that during election years, governments in their bid to retain power over award contracts resulting in heavy financial deficits and his administration was determined to break that vicious cycle.

President Mahama appealed to the students to be crusaders on climate change as their educational programmes in that direction could change the mindset of Ghanaians especially farmers who were still adhering to antiquated farming methods.

On terrorists’ attacks on some countries, President Mahama said it was by divine intervention that spared Ghana and urged Ghanaians to continue to pray for the blessings received from God over the years.