The Vice Chair of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Education, Joseph Kwame Kumah, has dismissed claims that the Ghana Scholarship Authority Bill 2025 is being hurried through Parliament without adequate scrutiny.
Speaking on Citi FM’s Eyewitness News on Thursday, 17 July, Mr Kumah addressed growing concerns from civil society organisations and the public, insisting that discussions around formalising the country’s scholarship administration system have been ongoing for several years.
“The assertion that the committee is rushing through the bill may not be wholly true,” he said, adding that efforts to introduce a legal framework for scholarship management date back to 2017.
He referenced the Parliamentary Hansard from 5 April 2017, which documented extensive deliberations among lawmakers on the need to regulate the operations of the Ghana Scholarship Secretariat.
“For anybody to think that it is just today that the Minister or Parliament is rushing through a scholarship bill — the need has been there since 2017,” Mr Kumah stressed. “Nobody is rushing any bill.”
The Ghana Scholarship Authority Bill 2025 aims to formalise the activities of the Scholarship Secretariat, promote transparency, and ensure equitable access to scholarships across the country.
The proposed legislation has sparked public debate, with some advocacy groups calling for more consultation and detailed analysis before it is passed.
