Scholarship Secretariat publishes list of beneficiaries after Fourth Estate exposé

The Ghana Scholarship Secretariat has published a list of foreign scholarship beneficiaries for the 2025 academic year.

 The list, now available on the secretariat’s website, details the names of beneficiaries, their respective institutions, the countries of study, and areas of study across various disciplines.

However, the list is not comprehensive, as it omits tuition and cost-of-living fees, leaving parts of the system still opaque. The publication is in line with the government’s ongoing efforts to establish a new scholarship regime.

 The reforms were necessitated by The Fourth Estate’s investigative series, The Scholarships Bonanza, which uncovered how government scholarships meant to support brilliant but financially disadvantaged students were awarded to individuals with political ties and those from affluent backgrounds.

The governing National Democratic Congress promised legislative reforms in its 2024 manifesto, while the opposition New Patriotic Party, led by Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, also pledged transparency through annual publication of beneficiaries and integrated scholarship databases, also on the back of the investigative series.

Parliament has since passed the Ghana Scholarships Bill to establish a new Ghana Scholarships Authority, mandated to publish details of applicants and beneficiaries, among other things. Meanwhile, the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), which runs its own scholarship scheme, has also published its list of beneficiaries. Before recent reforms, Ghana’s scholarship system was widely criticised for being opaque and driven by patronage, with many calling for a complete overhaul. 

The Fourth Estate’s investigations that led to these reforms were based on an analysis of data obtained from the Scholarships Secretariat through a Right to Information request. The analysis revealed how the Scholarship Secretariat had been awarding scholarships meant for underprivileged but brilliant students to some politically exposed and influential people.

Among the notable beneficiaries identified were Dr Dennis Addo, the founder of the Claron Hospital and a member of the New Patriotic Party; Lucie Ekeleba Blay, daughter of Freddie Blay, Board Chairman of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation and former National Chairman of the NPP; Gifty Oware-Mensah, the Deputy Director of the National Service Secretariat; and Nana Adubea Asante-Apeatu, the daughter of a former Inspector-General of Police, David Asante-Apeatu.

 The investigations sparked calls for reform from several public figures, including former Auditor-General, Daniel Yao Domelevo, the former President of the Ghana Bar Association, Yaw Acheampong Boafo and the Executive Director of the Institute of Education Studies, Dr Peter Anti, who urged a review of the scholarship system to promote equity and transparency in the administration of scholarships.

The Minority Caucus in Parliament echoed these demands, calling for the immediate interdiction of the former Registrar of the Scholarship Secretariat, Dr Kingsley Agyemang, who has yet to be held accountable for the cronyism and nepotism that had plagued the scholarship system during his tenure.

 The opposition Members of Parliament at the time also urged the Special Prosecutor to conduct a forensic audit of all scholarships awarded since January 2017. The Fourth Estate’s investigations revealed that at least 17 individuals received multiple scholarships, allowing them to pursue different programmes in two consecutive years or in a single year.

 This means while some needy students struggled to secure funding for a single programme, others received scholarships covering two different programmes. Eleven individuals received multiple scholarships in consecutive years (2019 and 2020), while six others were granted two different scholarships within the same year, either in different countries or in the same country. Amounts awarded ranged from GBP 13,250 to GBP 55,000 per school, covering both tuition and living expenses.

Following these revelations, Osman Ayariga, Deputy National Youth Organiser of the National Democratic Congress, petitioned the Office of the Special Prosecutor to investigate the Registrar of the Scholarships Secretariat for misconduct.