Business News of Sunday, 3 July 2016
Source: citifmonline.com
File Photo
Students of the University of Ghana will now heave a sigh of relief following a decision by authorities of the school to scrap the payment of utility bills to settle it’s arrears. The decision will be effective from next academic year.
School authorities had earlier proposed GHC 2,326 cedis and GHC 922 for residential and non-residential students respectively. But a statement signed by the President of the SRC, Esinam Afi Seade, said the proposed charges had been “nullified.”
The statement further explained that, the directive “was effected by the University’s management at the University’s Council meeting on the 30th of June, 2016.”
“In the light of this, students shall only pay their respective residential and academic fees from the start of the 2016/2017 academic year which effectively begins on Wednesday 17th August, 2016. Such billings shall be duly communicated later,” the statement said.
“Our resolve to champion the interests of students remains unaltered, and with all available support, we shall always seek the best pasture for all students,” it added.
Last year, government announced a policy to absorb utility bills for tertiary institutions, but some of the institutions still transferred the cost to students. Students of some tertiary institutions said they were still being billed despite government’s intervention.
This compelled the Ghana Union of Professional Students (GNUPS), to ask government to clarify its stance on absorbing utility cost for the various tertiary institutions across the country.
UCC students won’t pay utility bills
SRC Last month, the Students’ Representative Council (SRC) of the University of Cape Coast (UCC), said students will not be bullied by the management of the university into paying utility bills.
The President of the SRC at UCC, Dennis Appiah Larbi-Ampofo, stated that the University is only trying to pass some of its debts to students as utility bills.
“We thought and believed that issue had died out until recently when the university management called on us. There was a revelation that the University is still owing huge sums of debt and the Electricity Company of Ghana is also on the neck of the University to pay,” he said.