Students urged to repay loans on time

THE Director-General of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), Mr Kwasi Boateng, has urged beneficiaries of student loans to demonstrate a high level of responsibility by repaying their loans on time.
He said SSNIT would be able to intervene positively in the socio-economic development of the country through the funding projects such as hostels, if students paid their loans on time.
Accommodation problems of most tertiary institutions in the country is as a result of the massive increase in the admission of new students.
Mr Boateng said this at the launch of the Students Representative Council (SRC) Alabi Hostel Fund of the Institute of Professional Studies (IPS) at Legon.
He said SSNIT had over the past decade been part of the solution to addressing the acute residential accommodation problems of institutions so long as there was effective collaboration between the authorities of the institutions and the organisation.
So far, SSNIT has worked closely with the authorities of public institutions to provide a number of hostels. The public institutions have made available land, while SSNIT has provided the construction finance and management of the hostels.
Mr Boateng urged all students to begin to think seriously and plan for their retirement even as they prepared for their careers, adding that "it is important for you to take keen interest in your relations with SSNIT to make you better informed about the scheme and thereby make life for you comfortable at the end of your working career”.
He commended the student leadership for the initiative and hoped that the effort would come to fruition.
The Fund Manager, Mr Charles Bannor, told the students that as professionals and commissioners of the fund, it was important that they stayed true to the core principles by taking responsibility, maintaining trust and influencing positively, the reasons for the initiative.
He applauded the entire student body for taking such an initiative to complement the institute’s efforts to create and sustain a convenient environment for effective teaching and learning activities.
The SRC president, Mr Ishmael Ackah, said since students played a vital role in ensuring a calm and conducive atmosphere to enhance student-management relationship, it was important to create a platform where students would have their peace of mind to concentrate on their academic work and extra curricula activities.
He, therefore, appealed to institutions, non-governmental organisations, the general public and other philanthropists to help the project which is estimated at GH¢100,000 to become a reality.