Ghana Approves Payment of Allowances For Senior Staff of Public Universities

Source: Africa Publicity

The Ghanaian government has approved the payment of Book and Research Allowances for senior members of public universities and colleges of education in Ghana.

The approval is for the 2024/2025 academic year.

Per the approved payment, academic staff will receive $1,500 as Book Allowance and $1,600 as Research Allowance.

Non-academic senior staff will receive $1,500 as Book Allowance. The cedi equivalent is to be calculated using the Bank of Ghana’s average exchange rate of GHS15.47 to $1.00, covering the period from 2nd September 2024 to 28th March 2025.

The directive applies to all public tertiary institutions and members of the Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana (CETAG), specifying that only senior members are eligible for the payments.

Ghana’s Ministry of Finance, in a June 2025 circular referenced in the document, requires that all claims submitted must be audited and validated by Internal Audit Units of the respective institutions before forwarding to the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) for processing and payment.

Public universities and colleges of education have been asked to submit two copies of audited claims for both academic and non-academic senior members, using a standardised claims template attached to the communication.

The directive is expected to trigger immediate submissions from institutions amid ongoing tension within the tertiary education sector over salary arrears, cost-of-living pressures, and outstanding allowances.

Background

Three key unions in tertiary education — the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG), the Technical University Teachers Association of Ghana (TUTAG), and the Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana (CETAG)  — had jointly threatened a nationwide strike if the Ghanaian government failed to pay their book and research allowances by June 13, 2025.

In a statement issued on Monday, June 9, the three unions pointed out their frustration over what they described as the “undue delay” in releasing the exchange rate required to compute their book and research allowances.

The unions cautioned that the delay has created “significant uncertainty and frustration” among members, as many depend on the funds to support academic work and research activities.