Mahama pledges to slash presidential budget to fund free university fees for freshers

The flagbearer of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama, has committed to cutting the presidential budget significantly if he wins the upcoming December 7 polls.

Mahama says this will help his next administration finance a ‘no academic fees’ policy for first-year university students.

The initiative, estimated to cost between GHS270 million and GHS290 million, is aimed at alleviating financial stress for students entering public tertiary institutions.

Addressing a crowd in Juapong on Tuesday, August 13, 2024, Mr. Mahama criticised the current administration’s spending, highlighting the wasteful expenditure that could be redirected towards education.

“We approximate that for all first-year students in public tertiary institutions, it should cost anywhere between GHS270 and about GHS290 million,” Mahama said.

He compared this to the government’s spending habits, saying: “Let me tell you something, the president: a few years ago, his travel budget in nine months amounted to GHS69 million. They held one cabinet retreat at the presidency; it cost almost GHS5 million.”

Mahama argued that the presidency’s annual budget, which has previously soared to GHS3 billion, could be trimmed to support the initiative.

“There is so much waste in the system, and even if you look at the office of the president’s budget alone, you will be able to cut to raise enough money to pay these academic facility user fees for all level 100 students,” he asserted.

Mr. Mahama also pointed out the disparity between the cost of the proposed initiative and the substantial budget allocated to the presidency.

“Do you know the budget for the office of the president? It is GHS2 billion every year. It is even now that the IMF has come, and they have cut it down to a point where it used to be three points, something like a billion cedis every year.

“We do not want, especially in the first year when the students are coming in for the first time, to go through what we call fee stress. That is why we call it a ‘no fee stress policy,” the NDC flagbearer said.

Mr. Mahama reassured us that this policy would not affect government subsidies to universities.

“The subventions from the government have kept declining. We are going to increase the subventions, but apart from that, we will make sure that universities get their subventions on time so that they can balance their budget,” he promised.

The ‘no academic fees’ initiative is part of Mahama’s broader strategy to reduce financial burdens on students and make higher education more accessible in Ghana.