By Murtala Issah
The Students Loan Trust Fund (SLTF) has inaugurated a Northern Zonal Office in Tamale, a move aimed at deepening access to financing for tertiary education while strengthening accountability and loan recovery across Northern Ghana.
The new office is expected to serve the growing concentration of universities, technical institutions and colleges of education in the northern sector, where enrolment has risen steadily over the past decade following the expansion of public tertiary infrastructure.
Speaking at the launch, SLTF officials emphasised that the decentralisation of operations is designed to remove longstanding barriers that required students to travel to Accra to access services.
The zonal presence will now allow applicants to receive in-person support for loan processing, biometric validation and repayment arrangements.
The Board Chairperson, Cynthia Amerley Amartiefio, noted that the establishment of the Tamale office reflects the Trust Fund’s response to demographic and institutional growth in the north.
“This intervention is meant to bring services closer to beneficiaries, ensure fairness in access and improve monitoring of repayments,” the Chairperson said, underscoring the importance of regional inclusion in national education financing.
Education analysts have often pointed to structural inequalities between northern and southern Ghana, particularly in access to funding, infrastructure and academic support systems. While government policies such as free secondary education have expanded the pool of qualified students, many from underserved areas still face financial constraints at the tertiary level.
The SLTF’s decentralisation strategy is therefore being viewed as both an administrative reform and a social equity intervention, ensuring that students are not excluded due to geography.
The new office in Tamale is also expected to collaborate more closely with institutional administrators to verify student data, reduce processing delays and strengthen repayment tracking among graduates working within the zone.
Beyond access, the new office is envisaged to improve loan recovery rates, an issue that has historically challenged student financing schemes across Africa.
This shift signals a move from a largely centralised model to a regionalised service structure aimed at ensuring the long-term sustainability of the student loan scheme.
Chief Executive Officer Dr Sajida Shiraz described the Tamale office as a practical expression of the government’s renewed focus on inclusive development and institutional efficiency.
She said the expansion aligns with the broader policy direction of the Government of Ghana to “reset” public service delivery by bringing critical services closer to citizens.
“This office is not just an administrative addition; it is evidence of our commitment to equity, transparency and responsiveness to the educational needs of all regions,” she stated.
Tamale’s emergence as an educational hub, hosting multiple public and private tertiary institutions, makes it a strategic location for such an intervention.
Stakeholders believe the zonal office will reduce bureaucratic bottlenecks, encourage more students to apply for support and ultimately increase completion rates among financially disadvantaged learners.
