Ghanaian students studying in Serbia are facing challenges due to delays in receiving their stipends from the Ghana Scholarship Secretariat.
The students, who rely on these stipends for their academic and daily living expenses, have not received any payments for nearly a year.
In a recent interview with Citi News, Abdul Salam Mohammed, a Ghanaian student in Serbia, expressed the difficulties they are facing. He shared, “We came in May [2023] and we haven’t received our stipends since last year, so it’s almost been 11 months. Even though we’ve had constant engagement with the Secretariat, nothing has been done about it and this has been a challenge for us. Many of us are adapting by doing a lot of menial jobs here and that is also affecting our academics.”
Another student added, “I arrived in Serbia last year and the main challenge here is with finances. We struggle to cater for many of our needs here and this affects our studies which is the main reason why we’re in this country. We borrow money from our country mates and people from other African countries to feed ourselves. Even moving to the main campus for lectures is by bus and if we don’t have money to do that, how do we learn.”
The students’ plea for timely disbursement of stipends comes in the wake of an exposé by The Fourth Estate, which revealed disparities in the allocation of scholarships. The investigation uncovered instances where scholarships were granted to individuals from financially stable backgrounds, including daughters of prominent personalities like Freddie Blay and David Asante-Apeatu.
This revelation has sparked public outrage, with calls for the interdiction and dismissal of Dr. Kingsley Agyemang, the Registrar of the Scholarship Secretariat. The controversy has also caught the attention of the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP), which has been actively investigating the Secretariat since July 2023 for suspected corruption and corruption-related activities.
