Students Loan Trust Fund to pursue defaulters

The Students Loan Trust Fund (SLTF) on Tuesday issued an ultimatum to all loan beneficiaries who have defaulted in the repayment schedule to redeem it or face legal actions, Mr. Henry Nii Dottey, Public Relations Officer, said in a statement.

The SLFT said “we are ready to pursue all defaulters of the scheme, especially those who have completed their courses of study but have failed to repay the loans.”

“These monies if not recovered, would put the loan scheme under pressure and that would cause a constraint and its ability to support other eligible students,” Mr Dottey stated in the statement copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra.

He said SLTF is using the first option of appealing and reminding all defaulters to pay back or face the necessary action that the fund may employ to redeem the money.

As part of the measures to redeem the money, Mr. Dottey said, the Fund Administrators are collaborating with government departments and agencies as well as the Controller and Accountant General’s Department to start monthly deductions at the end of November from the salary of defaulters on government payroll.

He reminded all employers including Ministries, Departments and Agencies of their obligations under section 24 of the SLTF Act 2011 Act 820 to deduct and remit monthly repayment amounts to the SLTF.

Mr. Dottey assured Ghanaians that the SLTF would not renege on its responsibilities but would seek to pursue and recover all such monies paid as loans to borrowers in order to sustain the scheme to enable other eligible students pursuing tertiary education to also benefit.

The scheme is a government social intervention aimed at providing financial support to Ghanaian tertiary level students and all efforts must be made to ensure the sustainability of the fund by recovering loans due it.

Source: GNA