Ghana’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Sabah Zita Benson, has accused the previous administration of mismanaging government scholarship funds, alleging that excessive spending on dependants of scholarship beneficiaries contributed to millions of pounds in unpaid tuition fees and living allowances owed to Ghanaian students in the UK.
In a series of posts on Facebook, Ms Benson claimed that significant amounts were spent on allowances, airfare and other benefits for spouses and children who accompanied scholarship recipients abroad, describing the expenditure as “reckless.”
According to her, in one instance, a beneficiary’s spouse and three children each received £8,160 in allowances, separate from the scholarship awarded to the student, while the family’s airfare reportedly cost the state GH¢90,000.
“The spouse and children were paid £8,160 each to accompany the wife and mother to go study. That is different from the scholarship amount to the beneficiary. Why? We have hundreds of such cases,” she wrote.
Ms Benson argued that resources spent on dependants could have been used to settle outstanding tuition fees and living allowances owed to scholarship beneficiaries affected by delayed payments.
She further alleged that more than £37 million in unpaid tuition fees and stipends accumulated between 2020 and 2025. She also questioned the decision to award a government scholarship to a 16-year-old student to attend a private secondary school in the UK at a reported cost of more than £56,000.
The High Commissioner cited another case where the government allegedly spent GH¢90,420 on visa fees, tuberculosis screening and airfare for two students and the spouse of one scholarship beneficiary.
Her comments follow a planned protest by some Ghanaian scholarship students in the UK over delays in the payment of their tuition fees and living allowances.
Ms Benson said the current administration inherited significant financial obligations from its predecessor and is working to address the outstanding payments.
“Those who want to come and protest tomorrow because government hasn’t paid your fees, you now know where your money went. You should have protested from 2020–2025 when they were not paying,” she stated.
She added that the government paid £3 million toward the outstanding arrears last year, has settled first-quarter payments for this year, and is currently processing second-quarter disbursements.
According to Ms Benson, the government remains committed to clearing the backlog of unpaid fees and stipends while introducing greater accountability in the management of the scholarship programme.
