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Some 5,000 students from the public universities, polytechnics as well as private university colleges pursuing accredited programmes of study have joined the Students Loan Trust Fund (SLTF) scheme since its inception in the 2006/7 academic year. This year, loans are due for repayment from two batches of polytechnic students and the first batch of university students totalling 26,240 while the total loan due for collection stands at eight million, five hundred thousand Ghana cedis (GH�8.5m). Mrs Kokui Adu, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Students Loan Trust Fund (SLTF), who made these known at a news conference in Accra, yesterday, said a target of five million, five hundred thousand Ghana Cedis (GH�5.5m), representing 60% of total amount due for repayment had been set as against the 40% targeted for last year. Mrs Adu disclosed that at the close of the Fund�s first full year recovery on December 31, 2012, a total of GH�2, 064,826.12 was collected in repayments from 3,518 borrowers, with collections exceeding target by 43.4%. She said a total of 895 borrowers had repaid their loans in full, out of which number some 524 borrowers had made voluntary repayments to the tune of GH�574, 617.38 while the Controller & Accountant-General�s Department (CAGD), had made its first payroll deductions from about 1,600 identified borrowers on government payroll in December 2012, adding that the CAGD would continue to make the monthly deductions until the loan had been paid in full. She said, to date, 42 employers were making monthly deductions on behalf of their employees for onward transmission to the Trust Fund and that of the 42 employers, 11 of them were public sector institutions, namely Savannah Research, Electricity Company of Ghana, Ghana Revenue Authority and SSNIT, with the remaining 31 employers being the banks, tertiary institutions, Non-Governmental Organisations and multi-national organisations in the private sector such as Cal Bank, Japan Motors, New Mont Gold and Accra Brewery. Mrs Adu gave the assurance that STLF would continue to enhance the terms and conditions of the loans and simplify loan application processes for students in need of assistance while intensifying its loan monitoring and tracing processes in pursuit of an aggressive loan recovery agenda. She called on all Ghanaian students to look up to the SLTF as the nationally-recognised institution providing equal access to education and pledged the commitment of the Trust Fund to continue its sensitisation programme targeted at all stakeholders, particularly employers, on the need to oblige to the provisions of the SLTF law as well as continue to seek greater collaboration with key stakeholders such as SSNIT, the CAGD, government agencies and other auxiliary institutions whose activities impacted on the operations of the SLTF. After some twenty years of students� loan administration under the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) Loan Scheme, the SLTF was established in December 2005 to take over the management of students� loans. Backed by the Students Loan Trust Fund Act, 2011 (Act 820), the Trust Fund commenced its operations in the 2006/07 academic year and disbursed loans to the first batch of students in the 2006/07 academic year. The Trust Fund has since made a number of interventions including the reduction in the number of guarantors from three to one to make it easier for students to find qualified guarantors and the introduction of other forms of guarantors, in addition to the traditional SSNIT pension contributor, namely corporate bodies of Ghana�s Club 100 or those listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange, Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies and nationally recognised religious bodies. In addition to these interventions, the Trust Fund has also introduced on-line application for the speedy processing of loans and the means assessment of applicants to better allocate loans to borrowers. The Trust Fund has also instituted the Students Loan Protection Scheme (SLPS) under which students or their financiers are absolved of any financial obligations when a borrower dies or becomes permanently incapacitated before the loan is repaid in full and the repayment period is exhausted. Currently, the SLTF has Dr Cornelius Adablah as the Chairman of the Board of Trstees.