The Member of Parliament (MP) for Abuakwa South and former Registrar of the Ghana Scholarship Secretariat, Dr Kingsley Agyemang, ran the Secretariat like a visa-racketeering centre, where husbands, wives, and children were sent abroad on state-funded scholarships.

In one instance, a couple and their three young children are said to be in London, with each of them receiving £8,160 per month from the Government of Ghana while the woman pursues an MBA at an unnamed UK institution.

Ghana’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Sabah Zita Benson, alleged the widespread abuse of the country’s scholarship system during the Akufo-Addo administration, claiming that families were sponsored with taxpayers’ money to accompany beneficiaries studying in the UK.

Aside from her revelation, there had been reports of scholarship slots being sold at exorbitant prices during Dr Kingsley Agyemang’s administration.

Mrs Benson specifically implicated the former Registrar of the Ghana Scholarship Secretariat, a member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), suggesting that the scheme was used to fund the relocation of scholarship beneficiaries’ spouses and children.

She made the allegations while speaking to a UK-based Ghanaian journalist, amid controversy over the payment of scholarship-related allowances to Ghanaian students in the UK.

According to the High Commissioner, the Bureau of National Intelligence (BNI) has become involved in investigations into alleged financial irregularities at the Scholarship Secretariat.

Mrs Benson said she had initially been reluctant to discuss the matter publicly but was compelled to respond after what she described as persistent attacks and a media campaign by some scholarship beneficiaries demanding payments.

“I don’t like coming to the media to discuss these issues because I feel that we should do it behind the scenes,” she said.

“But the people that I’m dealing with are not giving you the chance. They go to the media first, trying to create the impression that we are not cooperating. So I have to let the Ghanaian people know that whatever you read from people who run to the media first is not the truth.”

Describing what she claimed to have uncovered as a “rot”, Mrs Benson said she had received scholarship documents from the Secretariat which, in her view, raised serious questions about how public funds were administered.

“These are documents from the Ghana Scholarship Secretariat. If you see the rot in this, you will be amazed,” she said. “I cringed reading these documents. I cringed. The rot that happened under the former registrar.”

Mrs Benson cited one case involving a woman who had been awarded a scholarship to pursue a master’s degree programme in the UK.

She alleged that, in addition to the woman’s scholarship and stipends, the government paid for her husband and three children to travel to the UK to accompany her.

“She gets awarded a master’s degree programme. She gets paid for the master’s programme with stipends. Her husband gets paid to come and support the wife to study, together with their three children,” she alleged.

She questioned the rationale for using public funds to finance the family’s relocation. “Support as in how? That’s a baby. It’s a baby, also a scholarship student,” she said.

According to Mrs Benson, the government paid the airfare and other expenses for the family, including visas and yellow fever cards, with the total cost allegedly reaching about £90,000.

She further alleged that the husband and each of the three children were paid monthly allowances of £8,160 to support the scholarship beneficiary.

“They pay their airfare with taxpayers’ money,” she said. “For the four, their visas, yellow card, yellow fever card, tickets, comes to about £90,000. And every month, the three children, the husband, everybody, each gets £8,160 for supporting the mother to study.”

The figures, if accurate, would amount to more than £32,000 every month for the four accompanying family members, excluding the scholarship beneficiary’s own funding.

Mrs Benson questioned whether such expenditure represented value for money for Ghanaian taxpayers.

 “Do you think that is fair to the taxpayer of Ghana?” she asked.

The High Commissioner called for investigations into the alleged payments and urged the authorities to recover any public funds found to have been improperly disbursed.

“And that is why NIB must move fast and make arrests and make people pay for this. People must refund,” she said.

She argued that beneficiaries who were unwilling to leave their families behind while pursuing studies abroad should consider studying in Ghana instead.

“If you get a scholarship and you think that you are a wife and you are not ready to move away from your husband or your children, then stay in Ghana and study,” she said.

“There are other universities. Why should my taxes be paid to take care of you to come and read MBA in London?”

Mrs Benson also alleged that the practice was not limited to one family, claiming that some beneficiaries travelled with four or five children and their spouses.

“Some of them had four children. Some of them had five children. Some of them had three children, plus spouse. All with Ghana taxpayers,” she alleged.

She further claimed that the Scholarship Secretariat had been unable to meet some of its financial obligations because funds had allegedly been diverted towards airfare and allowances for entire families accompanying scholarship beneficiaries.

“This is why the scholarship secretariat could not pay these debts,” she said. “Because the money was being channelled to other places. It was being paid for airfare for whole families.”

Mrs Benson stressed that the matters were under investigation and that the process would take time. “This thing is under investigation. So we will take our time to do it,” she said.

She also raised concerns over claims by some PhD students who had completed their programmes but were demanding outstanding stipends despite, according to her, having no intention of returning to Ghana.

“For now, any payment that is made, knowing what I know about PhD students who have completed and are asking me for 40-month stipends with no intention of going back, we will ensure that the law is enforced,” she said.

Former Registrar of the Ghana Scholarship Secretariat, Dr Kingsley Agyemang, has rejected allegations of wrongdoing surrounding the award of scholarships during his tenure, describing recent public comments by Ghana’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and Ireland, Sabah Zita Benson, as false and misleading.

In a statement issued through his lawyers, Sarkodie Baffour Awuah & Partners, Dr Agyemang described the narrative surrounding him as false and misleading and maintained that he performed his duties as Registrar with utmost diligence.

The statement dated yesterday, Thursday, 13 August 2026, Dr Agyemang said he discharged his duties as Registrar of the Scholarship Secretariat with “utmost diligence” and denied any wrongdoing.

The statement follows recent public commentary by Ms Benson, which Dr Agyemang’s lawyers said was aimed at “renewing public ridicule” against their client.

According to the lawyers, investigations have already been initiated into allegations of corruption relating to scholarship awards made during the tenure of the previous administration.

They therefore questioned the High Commissioner’s decision to publicly comment on the matter rather than allowing the relevant security and investigative agencies to complete their work.

“The High Commissioner’s resort to the media to publicly berate our client rather than allowing the appropriate security and investigative bodies to discharge their mandate is regrettable and unwarranted,” the lawyers said.

They further claimed that the latest comments by Mrs Benson were not the first occasion on which she had made what they described as “wild allegations” against Dr Agyemang despite ongoing investigations.

The former Registrar, they said, had made himself available to the state security and investigative agencies and had fully cooperated with them to ensure that the allegations were thoroughly investigated.

“He has not only availed himself to the said state security agencies but has fully cooperated with them with a view to ensuring that the allegations are thoroughly investigated, his name is completely cleared, and the matter is brought to a definitive conclusion,” the statement said.

Dr Agyemang was described by his lawyers as a law-abiding citizen who remains focused on discharging the mandate entrusted to him by his constituents.

They said he remained committed to the rule of law and due process and was confident that the ongoing investigations would ultimately establish the truth.

“He remains confident that in the fullness of time, the truth will prevail, and he will be vindicated,” the lawyers said.

Dr Agyemang had earlier refuted media reports that he had been arrested by the BNI, describing the claims as false.

This follows reports that he was arrested by the BNI in connection with alleged scholarship-related fraud during the Akufo-Addo administration.

Media reports at the time indicate that the MP was invited through the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, on May 5, 2026, when he was questioned by investigators.

He is said to have cooperated with the inquiry and was subsequently released after the engagement.

A video shared by the MP on May 5, 2026, also showed him at an eatery with an unidentified person, countering claims of his arrest and detention.

However, media reports later revealed that he was actually accompanied to the BNI office by Henry Nana Boakye, alias “Nana B”, the NPP National Organizer and a lawyer. Nana Adjei Baffour-Awuah, an MP who doubles as a lawyer, and a third lawyer, Lenin Anane Agyei.