Students Loan Trust Fund publishes names and pictures of loan defaulters

Some defaulters on Students Loan Trust Fund loans woke up Wednesday to their names and faces being published in the Daily Graphic.

Some of the names date as far back as 2009, from the first batch of beneficiaries who took the loan in 2006.

The fund managers have in the past threatened to publish the names and pictures of the defaulters in the national dailies.

The Daily Graphic publication of November 21, 2019, published the first batch of names and pictures of 20 graduates with some of them leaving school as far back as 10 years ago.

More than 55,000 people owe the Students Loan Trust Fund (SLTF) GH¢75 million, representing default in the repayment of the loan’s students took to cushion them while in school.

Out of the number, about 35,000 have made some form of payment, leaving more than 20,000 who have not paid anything at all, after the two-year grace period for repayment elapsed.

Data from the fund indicated that 35 per cent (about 7,000) of borrowers who had not paid anything to the fund said they were unemployed.

However, the fund’s Chief Executive Nana Agyei Yeboah said “the payment of the loan is not contingent on being employed. Even for those who are not working, the amount used in buying airtime alone could be saved to defray part of the loan”.

Meanwhile, the fund is threatening legal action against all defaulters.