Education

SLTF Defaulters Won’t Pay: No jobs no Loan Repayment – Defaulters tell SLTF

SLTF defaulters won’t pay and “No jobs no loan repayment” are the messages many unemployed graduates and others employed by institutions such as NABCO and NYA are sending on social media especially on Facebook. The message is simple “We won’t pay loans unless we get decent jobs” one of the defaulters posted.

The students have “blasted” SLTF over its decision to published the full list of student loan defaulters from UG, UDS, UCC, KNUST et al. The graduates from the tertiary institutions cannot understand why the Student Loans Trust Fund (SLTF) is putting unnecessary pressure on them when they have no decent jobs to earn and pay their loans.

A visit by NewsGhana24 news desk to the official site of the (SLTF) was greeted by this message

Loan Defaulters: The following beneficiaries of the Students Loan are due for repayment. The borrowers are in default of their monthly installments or have not started repayment of their loans.

We are therefore asking the under-listed borrowers to repay the loan in order for others to access the fund.

The Trust Fund will publish the names of these defaulters and their respective amounts in the National dailies if they fail to repay their loans on time.

SLTF defaulters won't pay — SLTF defaulters Notice

Some of the defaulters may have intentionally decided not to pay. However, in the past, SSNIT had used the contributions of defaulters to settle their loans several years of work after school without any commitments. That in it self could be said to be illegal yet they went ahead to do that. A legal suit by any of such defaulters could have put SSNIT in hot waters for taking such actions without the consent of contributes.

Most of the students who graduated recently and championing the “No jobs no loan repayment” are either doing their national service, employed by the National Youth Agency, NABCO or any of such institutions. The first batch of students names published were mainly those of students who completed their studies as far back as 2010.

The fact is SLTF defaulters won’t pay or cannot pay back students loans without jobs. The first batch of the list of student loan defaulters is already in the public domain but the truth is most of the defaulters are on NABCO allowance and so they can’t help you.

The trust has decided to head to court to compel defaulters to pay the Ghana Student Loan Trust Fund scheme before going to court to retrieve the money.

Earnings by these students are often less than GHS700. One of the defaulters took to social media to vent his frustration and wrote. “They can put my pics on front page of daily graphic, I won’t pay without a proper job.” A hungry man is an angry man.

Again it is a reality no one can run away from that, graduate unemployment in Ghana is high. According to tradingeconomics.com unemployment rate in Ghana increased to 6.70 percent in 2018 from 6.60 percent in 2017.

Many graduates are still at home after completing their studies. Graduates who completed their education related degree programs in UCC, UEW and the likes are yet to be posted. The question is how can such persons genuinely pay their loans?

“I don’t have money to pay because I’m still jobless where do they expect me to get money and pay.” This is the reality shared by a defaulter on a social media when he saw his picture and details on line as a defaulter.

The “No jobs no loan repayment” and the SLTF defaulters won’t pay chants on social media is worrying as students are frustrated. However, SLTF is not expected to halt the steps of the Student Loans Trust Fund (SLTF) in its attempt to ensure, the trust is able to run efficiently but getting defaulters to honour their obligations.