Africa Education Watch (Eduwatch) has petitioned the Chief of Staff, calling for the immediate cessation of what it describes as the growing accumulation of non-bilateral foreign scholarship debt amounting to more than GH¢600 million owed to universities in the United States and the United Kingdom.
The petition was submitted on Friday, January 23, according to a Facebook post by Eduwatch’s Executive Director, Kofi Asare, on Saturday, January 24. He warned that despite the passage of a new Scholarships Law intended to end foreign scholarships, awards granted before 2025 continue to “spiral into unsustainable debt.”
“Yesterday, Eduwatch petitioned the Hon. Chief of Staff to IMMEDIATELY CEASE the accumulation of over GHS 600 million in non-bilateral foreign scholarship debt to American and British universities,” Mr Asare stated.
He argued that the continued financing of such programmes places an unnecessary burden on the public purse, particularly at a time when Ghana’s public universities remain “systemically underfunded.”
Mr Asare noted that the majority of courses pursued abroad under these scholarships are available locally at a much lower cost. “Over 95% of these programmes are available locally, at a fraction of the GHS 600,000 we spent on a single MA in Public Administration in the USA in 2019,” he said, adding that Eduwatch has consistently made this call since 2019.
The education policy advocate urged government to recall beneficiaries of the affected scholarships and facilitate their smooth transition into local universities to prevent further financial exposure. “The more government delays, the more debt is accumulated,” he cautioned.
Framing the issue within the current economic context, Mr Asare stressed that Ghana could no longer sustain expensive foreign scholarships. “No more dollar scholarships in an IMF economy. Build Ghana. Fund Ghana. Study in Ghana,” he declared.
He further warned that Eduwatch would pursue legal and civic action if the government fails to act. “If the government fails to terminate those wasteful non-bilateral foreign scholarships, we will challenge the validity of the MoUs in court and launch street protests,” he said.
