Indexing government scandals one at a time
In 2019-2020, the Scholarship Secretariat spent at least 291,480 pounds sterling (GBP), 146,502 US dollars (USD) and 7,685 Canadian dollars (CAD) on 20 influential individuals and the associates of the political elite.
For example, Gifty Oware-Mensah (née Oware-Aboagye), obtained a government scholarship of GBP18,450 to study at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom in 2020 to pursue an MSc in Development Policy and Politics. She was awarded the scholarship three years after she started working for the National Service Secretariat as Deputy Executive Director. In the same year, she acquired Berry Ladies FC, a female football club formerly known as Halifax Ladies FC, currently playing in Ghana’s women premier league.
Fawzy Ramadan, a relative and personal assistant to Second Lady, Samira Bawumia, was awarded GBP17,355 to cover the cost of tuition for an MSc in Global Supply Chain Management at Brunel University in the UK. However, Mr Ramadan never pursued the course because he claimed he was involved in an accident during the peak of COVID-19 and could not defer the course. Neither he nor the state benefitted in any way from the tuition fee paid to the Brunel University on his behalf.
Then there is Michael Ofori-Atta Jr. The weight of political connections appears to have heavily favoured him, being a relative of President Nana Akufo-Addo and former Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta. In 2020, the Scholarship Secretariat paid the University of Birmingham GBP16,740 for Michael to enroll in a programme called the Foundation Pathways – Social Sciences, Business and Law. The university describes the course as a “pathway that will lead its students into a number of possible undergraduate degrees” within its College of Arts and Law or College of Social Sciences.
April 2, 2024
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