Loans board owed K16 bn, vow to track defaulters

Higher Education Student’s Loans and Grants Board executive director Prince Phwetekele says the board is planning to recover K16 billion from individuals who have defaulted on loan repayment, as is hindering its ability to reach a larger number of deserving beneficiaries.

He made the remarks recently during regional consultative meetings with university and college administrators in Blantyre.

Said Phwetekele: “The loan scheme was initiated in 1989 and has undergone various phases, presenting challenges in keeping records, making it difficult to identify and locate needy students.

“In order to enhance the loan recovery process, the board has reached out to various stakeholders, seeking their assistance in locating former beneficiaries.

“Through this partnership with institutions of higher learning, we hope we will be able to reduce errors in identifying needy students as well recover loans from their employees who benefited from the scheme,” he said.

He further said the partnerships with institutions of higher learning aim to not only minimise errors in identifying needy students, but also to facilitate the recovery of loans from individuals who have benefited from the programme and are currently employed by these institutions.

“This collaboration will enable us to streamline the process and ensure that deserving students, receive the necessary support while also promoting accountability among loan beneficiaries,” he said.

In her remarks, Malawi Adventist University registrar Tsankhobi Chauluka said the partnership will facilitate how best to process loans and grants disbursement.

She said: “We have already started the process of assisting the board to recover the loans by submitting the list of graduated students who have benefitted from the scheme.

“All employees who graduated from universities that benefitted from the loans, we submit the names to check if they still owe the board.”

This year, the board has received over 20 000 applications from needy students. However, it has been struggling to recover mature loans amounting to over K16 billion from defaulters.