The Students Loan Trust Fund, has launched its annual Recovery Month activities for 2023. The month-long public awareness campaign is under the theme, “achieving increased access to tertiary education:the employers’ role in the sustainability of the Students Loan Trust Fund”.

The Head of Public Relations at the SLTF, George Ferguson Laing said that the focus on employers is due to the crucial role they play in the recovery of loans.

Employers are mandated by the Students Loan Trust Fund Act 820 to deduct loan repayments from employees on behalf of the SLTF. “Employers are one of our key stakeholders.

By creating access to tertiary education for our borrowers, we provide employers with the human resources they need to run their organizations.

Apart from the legal obligations, it makes business sense for employers to facilitate the recovery of student loans, in order that the SLTF continues to play the critical role it does in the production of human capital for the economy”.

The Head of Repayment and Resource Mobilization, Ms. Rosemary Aryee said that the SLTF has over the past few years made significant investment in expanding the number of platforms available to borrowers to repay their loans. This she said was to create convenience for borrowers and greater efficiency for the SLTF.

Borrowers can now choose to repay their loans through SLTF partner banks, credit or debit cards, mobile money, or the Ghana.gov platform.

Borrowers in the US, Canada, UK and Europe have the option of using the PayAngel platform to make regular payments.

Ms. Aryee said that the SLTF is now turning its attention to enforcing the law by prosecuting defaulting borrowers.

“The Fund relies on the recovery of loans for its sustenance and it is through this, that new generations of students have the opportunity to access financial assistance. Borrowers who refuse to repay their loans are denying others the opportunity to access tertiary education and we have taken the decision to commence criminal prosecutions to recover the monies owed”.

According to Ms. Aryee, the law requires the SLTF to go through a number of steps before prosecution.

“Over the past few months we have diligently been following and documenting the due process and we are in the final stages of completion which will allow us to prosecute some of our most recalcitrant borrowers”.