President of IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe, has expressed concerns over the government’s decision to allocate funds for teacher trainee allowances in the 2025 budget.
He suggested that the support should have been structured as a loan rather than a grant.
“I thought it should be a loan so they can pay it back. Converting it into a grant is just spending money,” he said in an interview on Adom FM’s morning show Dwaso Nsem.
He noted that while he was not entirely opposed to the nursing trainee allowance, he was not in favor of extending the same to teacher trainees.
“Maybe the nurses’ allowance is okay, but for teachers, I think it’s just spending money unnecessarily. The NDC may have considered that teachers need support, and if they can afford to give them, that’s fine. But for me, I believe they should be given loans instead of grants,” he argued.
Mr. Cudjoe also suggested that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) was using the allowances as a political tool but acknowledged that the party had taken a different approach compared to the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
“The NDC is spreading the love and has been different this time, unlike the NPP. But beyond politics, I think maybe things are tough, so they want to give teachers some relief,” he added.
His comments come after Finance Minister Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson announced a GHS683 million allocation for teacher and nursing trainee allowances in the 2025 budget.
“We have allocated GHS203 million for the payment of teacher trainee allowances and another GHS480 million for nursing trainee allowances,” Dr. Forson stated while presenting the budget in Parliament.
The allocation aims to provide financial support to aspiring educators and healthcare workers, ensuring they complete their training without financial hardship.
However, Mr. Cudjoe cautioned that while supporting trainees is important, the government must be mindful of how resources are allocated.
“We also need to be careful. Some of these beneficiaries may not even serve the country after their training. It’s a social democratic policy, and the NDC can choose to do these freebies, but we need to think long-term,” he remarked.
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