Government has said that it will set up loan schemes for its public university students this year in a bid to do away with the bursary system in the long term.
Education Permanent Secretary Patrick Nkanza said that his ministry was currently looking at ways to strengthen the system of recovering the loans so that other students can benefit.
Dr. Nkanza disclosed that government was in the process of putting up a body to administer the loans.
The minister said this in an interview in Lusaka yesterday.
He welcomed input from all stakeholders to ensure effective management of the system.
He affirmed that the system will be implemented and improved on as government was keen on seeing the exercise become successful and achieve its targets.
On Wednesday former University of Zambia (UNZA) Vice-chancellor Robert Serpell advised government to consider establishing a system to offer loans to students at public unversties, as opposed to the current bursary system which had become unsustainable for government.
In a submission to the Parliamentary Committee on Education, Science and Technology, Professor Serpell also called on government to detach itself from the loan scheme but allow commercial banks to administer the system because they already had effective loan recovery measures in place.
ZANIS
This is good if only the right home work is done.I hope this will also address the corruption and nepotism which characterized the bursery scheme.
I have heard of a lot of people in the USA complain a lot about paying back such loans. I only hope the interest rate will be manageable on the part of the borower. May be at 3%.
How different will this new loan scheme be from the one initiated at UNZA and CBU during the Mwanawasa Era? Could someone please clarify!
The difference is that they would want to do away with parasites completely – no bursaries.
This is a mayo mpapa naine nkakupapa
@ old wine in new bottles..naine im wondering cos i seem to remember when i was at zit..mwanawasa had introduced a loan scheme following the same scale as bursaries for students who were behind us at the time..u know 25%..till 100% and so forth..maybe they shud say they will be serious about enforcing the repayments…ba sati name boza please..this was initiated during mwanawasas era..or where they too busy tukanaring him to remember ?
Loan scheme would be very good. The govt need to establish some legal framework for repayment including requirements for organisations to ‘credit’ check someone against any outstanding loan before employing them so that repayments are remitted by employing organisations.
We need to understand that the scheme may not necessarily collect all the loans as others may remain unemployed while others may leave to work in other countries, but at least it will bring back some money so others can use it.
kaya
How do you give a loan to some one without a permanent address. There are no streets in Kanyama, Mtendere, Kapoto, Kandabwe shanties. The picture is the same in all towns and shanties in Zambia. P.O Box number is not a residential address. You will be dishing out free money and there will be scores of ‘dodgy’ students lining up for freebies in the form of student loans. That is a recipe for corruption. NRC numbers cannot work, anybody can get another NRC.
In my simple minded way, here is a solution: Just make free university education in all public universities which were built by tax payers and give money to the universities to improve the infrastructure. The poor and those who are not well connected will have a chance to access university education. What credit check can one do…
You can either use NAPSA system or PAYE system to get this money back.
a good step in a right direction. Lets use the resources well and bring home the desired degrees and results. Education is power to develop the country.
We first need to strengthen our social security in our country for this loan scheme to have a chance. People should be identified properly through their NRC’s and record keeping should be seriously improved (No, established). Government (policies), private sector (for the capital), and other institutions like NAPSA, Home Affairs should work hand in hand for this to be a success. I wonder though how they will be able to get the money back from those who decide to go abroad upon finishing their studies…Its high time free things ended in Zed, our small economy cannot thrive if people do not work extra harder.
That risk has to be factored into the equation. Some may become incapacitated or even die. That is a cost society picks up.
But as you suggested, there is a lot more to be taken care of on the front end to minimize the cost. Rushing into it without addressing the risk concerns will only increase the cost.
We made this proposal a long time ago!
Thats the way to go.However theres need to review the N.R.C system first so that graduates are easily traced if they decide not to pay or leave the country.GOD BLESS ZAMBIA.
Your website doesn’t display properly on my iphone – you may want to try and fix that