NDC reveals how no university academic fees policy will be funded

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) says if it comes to power in 2025, it will cut the excessive budget of President Akufo-Addo to fund the no university academic fees initiative for WASSCE graduates or first-year university students.

Flagbearer of the opposition NDC John Dramani Mahama speaking at an event said the tertiary policy would cost between GH₵270 and GH₵290 million, which is significantly lower than the presidency’s budget of GH₵2 billion.

“We have costed it (no academic fees initiative) and we approximate that for all first-year students in public tertiary institutions, it should cost anywhere between GH₵270 to about GH₵290 million

Let me tell you something, the president, a few years ago, his travel budget in nine months amounted to GH₵69 million. They held one cabinet retreat at the presidency, it cost almost GH₵5 million

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 hundred students

“Do you know the budget for the office of the president? It is GH₵2 billion every year. It is even now that IMF has come and they have cut it down, at a point where it used to be three point something 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

So we are saying that we can absorb the academic user fee but it will not affect the subventions of governments to the universities and institutions of higher learning

“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 stated.

In other news, Africa Education Watch (EduWatch) has urged the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to target brilliant but needy students with their free tertiary academic fees policy adding that it should not be a wholesale initiative.

“When it comes to tertiary education, our call has been for authorities to target needy students because they are the ones who are unable to access tertiary education. The idea was for the Student Loan Trust Fund to help address this challenge. But the loan scheme is reserved for students.

Some individuals are unable to go to university because they are unable to pay their admission fees, and the NDC is planning to remove that barrier.

That is positive news. However, we have to implement it by targeting those who are needy, and by doing that, we could do more than what has been proposed,” a spokesman for EduWatch, Kwasi Nomoh Junior said in an interview.