High Cost Of Living Affects Foreign Students In Ghana

Foreign students in Ghana have expressed dissatisfaction with the current economic conditions.

Some students from Congo, Nigeria, Togo, Liberia and Cote d’Ivoire, who spoke to BUSINESS GUIDE in separate interviews on Tuesday in Accra, indicated that life had become unbearable for them.

“Whenever we inform our parents about the recent astronomical increases in utility tariffs and prices of petroleum products and the need for them to increase our monthly remittances, they do not believe that we are going through all these problems. They think we want to fleece them. Even the hostel fees are also gradually going up and it has now become very difficult,” a final-year student of a prominent school in Accra said.

Richard Ismeal, a Togolese student of Sikkim Manipal University (SMU), an Indian international university located off the Ring Road, Accra, told the paper that “the continual increase in tariffs is a really affecting me, especially the transport fares. When you call your parents and tell them to increase your money because of the cost of living in Ghana, they think you are telling lies.

“Due to this, you need to deprive yourself of other things just to manage your funds for transportation,” he noted.

A Nigerian student, Jones Oluwagbemiga, also at SMU told 'Business Guide' that “it is not easy for us at all. Some of us who are not expecting anything from our parents back home just don’t know what to do in this current crisis.

A Liberian student at the University of Professional Studies-Accra (UPSA), Mark Pokoah said, “Sometimes I have to walk almost half of the distance from Dome where I live to Kwabenya before I board a trotro to school at UPS because the money on me won’t be able to take care of the whole journey.

Source: Melvin Tarlue/D-Guide