The Management of the Students Loan Trust Fund (SLTF) has been closely following media reports that seem to suggest that teacher trainee allowances are not being paid.

We take this opportunity to inform the general public and our immediate stakeholders that payment of teacher trainee allowances started in October 2017 for the 2017/18 academic year.

Prior to the reintroduction of the allowances, the Students Loan Trust Fund which is now mandated by Government to disburse the allowances held extensive consultations with the Principals of Colleges of Education (PRINCOF) and the Teacher Trainee Association of Ghana (TTAG) to agree on the modalities for payment.

The SLTF also visited all 41 Colleges of Education who are benefiting from the allowance to educate the trainees on the conditions they need to satisfy to benefit from the allowance. For trainees to benefit from the allowance, certain conditions must be met by the trainee and by the College of Education in which s/he is enrolled in. The trainees must be duly registered in the academic year in their institution. In addition, the trainee must obtain a SSNIT number and an E-zwhich account number onto which the allowance is paid electronically. The College of Education must in turn forward a list of all eligible students to the SLTF for verification and payment.

The following is an update of the process so far:

1. Allowances for October and November have been disbursed to all colleges that presented school lists on time. 28,467 students have been paid as at 24^th November 2017.
2. For those colleges that presented their lists late, payment of both October and November allowances is being paid this month.
3. There have been some challenges with the data of some students including presentation of wrong SSNIT numbers, misspelling of names, wrong ezwhich numbers, and duplication of student data. Once these anomalies are corrected, the affected students will be paid all their outstanding allowances.
4. Many colleges are yet to present complete data of their first year students. Once this is done, they will be paid their outstanding allowances.
5. By the agreed timetable with stakeholders, allowances are payable at the end of every month in which trainees are in school.

The SLTF is committed to putting in place a rigorous disbursement system that will protect the public purse and serve its stakeholders efficiently.