General News of Friday, 4 September 2020

Source: peacefmonline.com

Students on govt scholarship exempted from paying $150 coronavirus test fee

File photo of travellers at Kotoka International Airport File photo of travellers at Kotoka International Airport

Students on government scholarship abroad are exempt from the payment of 150 dollars for COVID-19 test at the Kotoka International Airport, Deputy Health Minister has revealed.

Speaking on Peace FM's ''Kokrokoo'' on Friday, Dr. Bernard Okoe Boye stated that government will absorb the fees provided any passenger arriving in Ghana went overseas on a national assignment or gained scholarship from government to study abroad.

He made this disclosure after host Kwami Sefa Kayi questioned him on what the government is doing for students in foreign countries who will be returning home.

"Before this new arrangement, although travelers had two weeks of hotel bills, students, government workers; once you went outside on a national assignment, the State paid for all your bills even before the new arrangements came into being. So, already the Government of Ghana is absorbing all the bills if only you didn't go for a holiday or on a private business," he stated.

However, students who went on a private education mission will have to bear their own cost.

''If it is a private arrangement and not a government scholarship, normally your family must handle but if it is a government scholarship, the State will handle it," Dr. Okoe Boye chipped in.