Chakwera orders student allowances’ review

President Lazarus Chakwera on Wednesday ordered an increase to tax payer-funded students’ upkeep allowances to help them afford basic needs.

Speaking at Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences (Mubas), the President instructed the Ministry of Education to collaborate with the National Council for Higher Education (Nche) and Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs to review upwards the loan facility that students access as an upkeep allowance.

Said Chakwera: “I am directing you [Ministry of Education] to work with the National Council for Higher Education and the Ministry of Finance to review the university student loans. The allowances they get should be increased as we did last year… They should not be lacking basic needs like soap and sugar. Let us support them.”

The presidential order followed an outcry from university students that the K350 000 academic year allowance is not adequate due to rising inflation and the 44 percent kwacha devaluation.

The allowance was revised in 2021 from K200 000 when students proposed that it be adjusted to K550 000, but the Ministry of Education rejected the proposal citing lack of funds.

Chakwera, who is the Chancellor of Mubas and five other public universities, called for a quick review of the upkeep allowance, saying it was not enough.

He was speaking at the launch of University Innovation Pod (UniPod) in Malawi, a project United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Malawi is implementing in partnership with Mubas at the university’s campus in Blantyre.

Chakwera also said his administration is committed to initiatives that aim to alleviate the socio-economic barriers to education, which he said are invariably barriers to development for the country as a whole.

Education activist Benedicto Kondowe said on Wednesday the review is long overdue and that his organisation, Civil Society Education Coalition, has already proposed an adjustment.

He said: “We noted that K350 000 is very unatenable. In our submission to the Ministry of Finance during the 2024/25 pre-budget consultations, we made a submission that it should be increased to at least K600 000.”

Kondowe said Chakwera’s administration should have, therefore, factored the proposals in the 2024/25 National Budget which Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs Simplex Chithyola Banda presented on February 23 this year.

“We made that submission in view of the current prevailing living conditions. Some of them [the students] are living in very dire situations,” he said.

Similarly, Edukans executive director Limbani Nsapato welcomed the directive, saying the allowances should be increased to at least K600 000.

He, however, said the challenge to implement the directive could be that the Higher Education Students Loans and Grants Board did not get what it asked for in the 2024/25 National Budget.

Last year, the board was allocated K13.7 billion to benefit 22 406 students in both public and private universities.

The board, however, said the funds were not adequate considering that former students still owe it about K16 billion, thereby hindering its ability to reach a larger number of deserving beneficiaries.

In the 2024/25 National Budget, Treasury has allocated K28 billion to the board after university students came under pressure to meet their tuition fee needs following public universities decision to increase fees last year.

University of Malawi hiked their fees to K650 000, Mubas fees went up to K750 000 and Mzuzu University hiked it to K650 000 per academic year.

Malawi University of Science and Technology had its fees hiked to K650 000 while Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources raised its fees from K350 000 to K600 000.

Kamuzu University of Health Sciences raised its fees to K1 million.