Dr. Saajida Shiraz

The government has released GH¢537 million to fully cover the tuition fees of 159,750 students under the No Fees Stress Policy for the 2025/2026 academic year.

The latest disbursement brings the total amount released under the policy to GH¢1.3 billion since its introduction, underscoring the government's commitment to reducing financial barriers to tertiary education and improving access to higher learning.

Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, 11th June 2026, Chief Executive Officer of the Student Loan Trust Fund (SLTF), Dr. Saajida Shiraz, outlined the details of the disbursement and the number of students who have benefited from the initiative.

“I am happy to say that the government of Ghana, since the start of the implementation of the no-academic-fee policy, has given the fund about 1.3 billion Ghana cedis. That is the total because we received 499 million last year to implement, and this year, we have received 537 million Ghana cedis to implement. So, the totality of this is a little more than 1 billion and to date, we have disbursed about 830 million of those received funds to now about 310,000 students in total," She explained.

"We did 152,000 last academic year and then this year so far, we have done 159,000 students. We anticipate that we will do more than 170 or close to 170 before the academic year."

According to her, the payment forms part of the government's efforts to ease the financial burden on students and their families while ensuring that more young people have the opportunity to pursue tertiary education without the challenge of tuition fees.

Dr. Shiraz noted that the No Fees Stress Policy continues to make a significant impact on access to education, with thousands of students benefiting from the intervention since its rollout.

She further revealed that the benefits of the programme are extending beyond traditional tertiary institutions.

According to her, students of the Ghana School of Law have also benefited from financial support under the Student Loan Plus initiative, which forms part of the broader No Fees Stress Policy.

“The student loan fund, starting this year, the President gave us a directive to expand coverage to include students from the Ghana School of Law. What this meant was that he committed us to paying full fees for all students of the Ghana School of Law who applied to us, and these fees were going to pay directly to the Ghana School of Law on their behalf. I am happy to say that for this, we've paid 878 students, and we've deployed a total sum of 14 million Ghana cedis to do that," she explained.

According to her, fees for law students are quite expensive, so they struck an average and paid the students accordingly.

“The Ghana School of Law, you know, the fees are quite expensive, so we gave an average sum of about 20,000 Ghana cedis for all those who applied," she explained.

The intervention, she explained, is intended to support professional education and ensure that financial constraints do not prevent qualified students from pursuing legal training.

The government has described the policy as a key intervention aimed at expanding access to higher education and reducing the financial burden on students across the country.

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Government releases GH¢537m to pay school fees for 159,750 students under No Fees Stress Policy

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