Over 9000 fresh students of the University of Ghana (UG), Legon, Accra are stranded as they cannot find accommodation on the campus or in nearby hostels.
The situation is getting frustrating for the students, most of them teenagers, as they have to leave their search for accommodation on campus to participate in orientation for freshers, leaving their parents and guardians to take on the task of moving around the various hostels in search of a solution.
This year, the UG has offered admission to close to 11,000 students, but only 1,970-bed spaces are available in both the residential halls and the private hostels.
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A room in the traditional residential halls (Akuafo, Legon, Sarbah, etc) costs GH¢850 per academic year; in the designated hostels, such as Pentagon, a room costs GH¢3,000, while in the new halls it costs GH¢1,350 per academic year.
Speaking to Citi FM, one agitated guardian said, "the failure of leadership in this country is a timebomb if someone wants to go to the university, you can't have common accommodation, someone has to travel all the way from Korle Bu to Legon. Nothing is working in this country honestly and it's every day.."
Management reacts
Dean of students' at UG Professor Godfred Bokpin in reaction said the school has not deliberately blocked the students from getting accommodation.
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"I don't think that from the university management perspective there is a deliberate action to block the rooms, the reason we went online is to guarantee some level of transparency and fairness but my understanding is that the beds available are very few so once the portal is opened perhaps within the shortest possible time all the beds are taken then that will mean that it closes up automatically even if you are in there, there will be no bed for you to pick any more of cause we have heard issues about the bed fees but I believe that some kind of investigation is ongoing, we have had that in the time pass we have invited in the BNI to help us in terms of people who will want to hijack the system...."
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