TURKEY-Based Ghana Students Grumble �Over Delayed Allowances

Information gathered by this paper indicates that students currently undertaking their courses in Turkey under the Ghana National Scholarship Program are facing harsh living conditions as the Secretariat has failed to pay them their due allowances since September 2015.

The students who are said to have been on a bilateral government scholarship at overseas are currently starving due to lack of money to cater for their needs.

Information shows that, the students since September 2015 till date have not been paid their monthly stipends in addition to their health insurance and book allowances for the 2015/2016 academic year, while they have began their second semester.

According to information, several efforts made by the students to get their allowances paid fell on hard rocks, since authorities always paid lip-service to their pleas.

Meanwhile, the Director of the National Scholarship Secretariat, Mr Fuseini Lansah, has attested to the fact that the allowances have not yet been settled and was aware of the hardships the students were going through in far away Turkey.

He however said the Secretariat had ordered all school authorities in Turkey to present the list of students on scholarship to his office for the settlement of their allowances but his outfit was yet to receive the list.

The source further revealed that three of the students who completed their studies in various fields and had to be flown back home by the secretariat are still hanging around as a result of lack of funds.

“We can hardly buy their basic items like soap, toothpaste except we borrow from some foreigners here. We are really suffering”, a frustrated student told this paper.