Flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) John Dramani Mahama has assured that the 'no academic fees for level 100 students' initiative will not affect the government's subventions to the universities. Instead, he said, the subvention will rather be increased by his administration. Mr Mahama stated that the 'no academic fees for level 100 students' initiative will cost between 270 million and 290 million Cedis. Addressing a gathering in Juapong on Tuesday, August 13, Mr Mahama said "we have costed it and we approximate that for all first-year students in public tertiary institutions, it should cost anywhere between  270 to about 290 million Ghana Cedis.  Let me tell you something, the president, a few years ago,  his travel budget in nine months amounted to 69 million Cedis, they held one cabinet retreat at the presidency, it cost almost 5 million Cedis. "There is so much waste in the system and even if you look at the office of the president budget alone you will be able to cut to raise enough money to pay these academic facility user fees for all level hundred students. Do you know the budget for the office of the president?