The Ghanaian Times reports that the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), will from next academic year, stop its students' loan scheme.This is because the scheme, established to assist students in tertiary institutions, has turned out to be the main source of loss to the Trust, as most beneficiaries have not paid back their loans.
A top official of the Public Affairs Department of SSNIT told the paper in Accra on Thursday that, the Trust had already informed the government of the decision and was awaiting its response.
It said, whiles loans given out continue to be rise, the ones being paid back are too small that the scheme has to get money elsewhere to sustain it. It said the current rate of the loan given out is unrealistic at 6% interest rate, where the lending rate at the banks is 48% and 52%.
