Loans Board launches campaign to recover K5bn

The Higher Education Students Loans and Grants Board (HESLGB) has launched a campaign to recover K5 billion former loan beneficiaries owe the board.

Addressing the press during the campaign’s launch in Lilongwe on Friday, HESLGB executive director Prince Phwetekere said the initiative is aimed at raising funds to support current students with constrained economic abilities.

He added that during the campaign, which will run for three months, the board expects to collect at least 30 percent of the K5 billion beneficiaries got between 1985 to 2015.

Phwetekere said: “We have about K5 billion, which is not yet revalued, that has matured and we are targeting to recover K1.5 billion during the campaign that will last for three months.”

He said to recover the loans, the board will work with different service providers, including employers of beneficiaries, the Credit Reference Bureau, the Directorate of Road Traffic and Safety Services, and the Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services.

In an interview after the launch, HESLGB Board of Directors spokesperson Henry Chingaipe said the campaign will encourage former loan beneficiaries to repay their loans and also mobilise funds that will enable the board to support other students.

He said: “The purpose of this campaign is to encourage students who went through the universities in this country and used the government loans offered through different schemes from 1985 to 2015.

“The loans have matured and are supposed to be paid back. Therefore, this will help us to find funds that will be used to support many needy and deserving students with enough resources.”

Chingaipe also said that the outstanding loans will be reevaluated by calculating their net present value of 2015, then a 15 percent interest rate will be applied.

He said the K5 billion is the principal amount, but the new amount will come after revaluation when the campaign is completed and will be effective November 1 2023.

In June this year, the board’s communications manager Millie Kasunda hailed some employers for helping the institution to recover K235 million in the last fiscal year, which she said was higher than the K74 million collected the previous year.

She disclosed that this year, the board has set aside K13.7 billion to benefit 22 406 students in both public and private universities and colleges in the 2023/24 loan cycle.