The Students Loan Trust has released about GHS7 million to give out as loans to students of tertiary institutions who have requested for loans from the trust.

Out of the amount, GHS3 million has been used to settle outstanding arrears owed about 32,000 students for the 2017/18 academic year.

The remaining GHS4 million constitutes part payment made to about 3,247 applicants for the 2018/19 academic.

This is expected to cushion students who applied for the loans to enable them to settle their fees in school and meet other academic commitments.

The Head of the Public Affairs Unit of the trust, Mr George Laing, told the Daily Graphic in Accra that students received between GHS1,500 and GHS3,000 depending on their request, “so on the average they received about GHS2,550.”

He said the trust had a relationship with about 119 tertiary institutions in the country.

“We depend on them to give us the list of students they have admitted and then we use that to clarify the authenticity of the applicants and pay,” he said.

According to him, the trust was obliged under the law to release the money to the applicants and not to schools.

Mr Laing said so far the trust had received the list of students from only about 50 tertiary institutions and had verified and paid students from those institutions who had applied for the loans.

“We work with the list and so once we get it, we release the funds accordingly,” he added.

Asked about students from the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ), he said the trust dealt with all applicants at the same time once funds were released to it for disbursement.

“I can’t speak specifically to the GIJ issue, but I  can say that we are releasing some funds to applicants and they [GIJ students] will get it once their turn is due,” he said.

Some students were not able to write their exams at GIJ because they claimed they had not yet received their loans from the trust, but Mr Laing said much as the trust sympathised with them, releases would be made according to the list and the availability of funds.