The government’s No Fees Stress policy has already moved a large sum of money. In July 2026, Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu said GH¢900,353,000 had been provided for 317,841 students. That scale is real. It does not settle a narrower question that Africa Education Watch has put back on the table: whether a qualified applicant who cannot raise the first payment still gets into a public tertiary institution.
On 31 August 2026, Eduwatch executive director Kofi Asare said too many students still face that barrier. For them, he argued, the policy works as a refund after enrolment rather than a waiver at the admission gate. He called the current arrangement “No Fee Stress Lite” and said the poorest people the programme claims to help can remain at home with an admission letter they cannot use.
What the payment routes actually do
No Fees Stress, launched in July 2025, is meant to cover academic-related fees for first-year students in public universities, technical universities, colleges of education and related public training institutions. The Students Loan Trust Fund (SLTF) runs the money. The 2026 Budget set aside GH¢537 million for the policy, plus GH¢25 million for free tertiary education for persons living with disability.
The Fund does not use one payment method for everyone. In May 2026, SLTF chief executive Dr Saajida Shiraz described a hybrid plan for 2025/2026. Academic fees for students in Colleges of Education, Colleges of Agriculture and Health Training Institutions were being paid straight to those schools. She said 41,007 students had been covered that way across 137 institutions. A first batch of 11,000 first-year students in public universities and technical universities had also had fees settled in the snapshot she gave.
For many university and technical university students, the practical path is still pay first, then reclaim. In May, SLTF disbursement director John Abbew Nkrumah said 58,528 students in those institutions had received reimbursements in the ongoing cycle, and that those payments follow after students have paid their schools. He said the college stream was largely on direct institutional payment.
If the school is paid directly, the academic fee can be cleared without you putting cash on the table. If you are waiting on a reimbursement, someone in the house still has to find that money, get you enrolled, then sit through SLTF checks of Ghana Card details, admission records and first-year status. Accra Technical University students told the Ghana News Agency earlier in 2026 that they were still waiting on earlier-year reimbursements.
The equity test Asare is setting
Asare’s point is not that refunds never arrive. It is that counting refunds is the wrong scoreboard if the policy’s job is to get people who would otherwise stay home through the door. He wants fees waived when an eligible student presents an admission letter, with government paying the institution. He has also said the intervention should be aimed at students who genuinely need it, rather than treated only as a broad first-year grant.
Government messaging has often framed the policy as removing the upfront fee barrier. Iddrisu has told Parliament that Finance has released enough money and that there was no outstanding No Fees Stress obligation for 2024/2025 and 2025/2026. Those statements speak to funding and payment backlog. They do not answer whether a qualified applicant who could not raise the first payment still got in.
The GH¢900 million spend and the 317,841 beneficiary count show that money moved. Asare is asking a different question: whether the academic fee is cleared at the admission gate, or only refunded after someone at home has already found the cash. On the college route, the fee can be absorbed at the school. On many university routes, that first payment still has to come from home.