Chairman of Narrative Changers George Solomon Gbenka is advocating the abolition of the state scholarship scheme.
Speaking in an interview on State of Our Nation, Solomon Gbenka argued that the scheme has been abused, defeating the purpose for which it was instituted.
He said contrary to the scheme’s mandate of aiding the education of the brilliant but needy in the country, it has become vehicle through which politically exposed persons siphon resources and benefit unduly from it to the detriment of the less privileged.
“For me, I think that this whole scholarship thing, if they can scrap off the scheme, it will be better for all of us. They should just scrap it off because the people who are supposed to be benefitting are not benefitting. The people whom the scholarship is meant for are not getting it,” he stated.
In place of the current scholarship scheme administered by the Scholarship Secretariat, Solomon Gbenka is proposing a decentralized system to be instituted to administer such aid going forward.
“The scholarship scheme should be scrapped. Then there will be a different mechanism. The mechanism will be that let’s decentralized these things”.
He continued, “Now, government will give a quota say ‘we want to sponsor 50 people in Cuba to study medicine and giving each region maybe 10 slots’ and now when it comes to the region, you will decide whether these needy ones will go and compete in exams and the best will be picked for that particular need of the state”.
The chairman of Narrative Changers was speaking on the back of an investigation by The Fourth Estate that revealed scholarships geared towards helping the education of the brilliant but needy are being awarded to affluent and politically connected persons.
The investigation shows politically connected persons and their relatives including daughter of former National Chairman of the NPP and current board chairman of GNPC Freddie Blay, relative and personal assistant of the Second Lady Samira Bawumia and relative of former Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta and president Nana Akufo-Addo among others have received scholarships while the needy are denied same.
Solomon Gbenka attributed the abuse of the scheme by the privileged to greed and moral decadency.
