Youth Development and Empowerment Minister says government is ending the years-long abuse of Ghana’s scholarship system, which he likened to selling tomatoes in a market.

George Opare Addo, speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express, said a new bill before Parliament is meant to cure the deep flaws exposed by the Fourth Estate’s investigation.

Mr Opare Addo explained that the absence of a standard procedure has allowed access to scholarships to be driven by connections rather than merit.

He said the committee he chaired, alongside Haruna Iddrisu as co-chair, set out to fix the chaos. “We did not have a standard procedure for administering scholarships,” he said. “It was about whom you know.”

He emphasised that scholarships were originally meant for “brilliant but needy students” or to fill national manpower gaps like the one Ghana faced after discovering oil.

Instead, he said the process became corrupted.

“How scholarships have been administered was like selling tomatoes in the market,” he said. “People go and then say, ‘Ah, let me pay ¢10 or ¢20,’ based on the investigations the Fourth Estate did.”

The Minister also said the state’s scholarship process has been scattered across agencies like GNPC, GETFund, and the Scholarship Secretariat.

He called for a centralised regime. “We needed a scholarship regime where if GNPC and GetFund have funding, we put them into a scholarship fund and then let there be an authority to regulate.”

He argued it is improper for a state agency like GNPC to administer scholarships when there is a national authority mandated to do so.

“Ever since Ghana gained independence, we have had no scholarship bill,” he said. “There was no law as to how scholarships are administered.”

The Minister wants a future where criteria are clear and uniform.

“I know that this is the criteria that has been set out when I’m looking for a scholarship,” he said. “This is what I have to meet and this is how I apply.”

He also said too many scholarships go toward funding students abroad for programs that are now offered locally.

He questioned why the state should pay for someone to study business administration abroad when Ghana has top business schools.

“Not when the University of Ghana Business School is one of the best in the sub-region,” he said. “

We can fund you to go to the University of Ghana Business School, if that is the course you want to run.”

He noted that the bill currently proposes that the state should not fund studies abroad if a program is already available in Ghana.

“What it means is that we have no hope, no confidence in our own institutions,” he said.

“Even some of the schools that some of these students leave Ghana to attend, if we compare their pedigree to UG, KNUST and UCC, you ask yourself, are we serious at all?”

On whether state-funded scholarships would cover private universities in Ghana, he said yes.

“Some of the things Ashesi University is doing,” he explained, “if there is a need to fund some students.”

He added that cost will always be a factor. But where private universities in Ghana offer unique programs not available in public ones, the funds should remain in the country.

“Why should I send a student out of Ghana when Ashesi can do it?” he asked. “When I can give the money to a Ghanaian entrepreneur, and the money is going to remain in Ghana?”