ALMOST half of 142,000- plus people indebted to the Higher Education Students Loans Board (HESLB) have paid up since December, last year when the Board threatened to publish their names.
Altogether, 142,470 beneficiaries owe the Board an outstanding 239.3bn/- to pursue tertiary education over the years.
The loans board has meanwhile defended the 15 per cent deduction from the salaries of defaulting recipients up from just eight per cent, stressing that the HESLB Act empowers the institution to set the rate in accordance with the prevailing situation.
“It should be understood that the eight per cent that was previously deducted was not contained in the loan agreement … rather, it was the discretion of the board,” the Executive Secretary of HESLB, Mr Abdul-Razaq Badru, told ‘Daily News’ in a telephone interview yesterday.
Since the Board issued the ultimatum in December last year, some 70,000 of the loan beneficiaries have showed up and started making repayments, Mr Badru explained.
“(Our) plan to make public the names of chronic defaulters is still there; there are some legal procedures we are working on before we effect it. The impressive turn-out by some longstanding defaulters has significantly changed the status of our database,” the HESLB in-charge emphasized.
The loans Board is still conducting outreach programmes in working places to trace beneficiaries who are yet to be included in its database, he said, noting that some employers have been reluctant to provide the board with names of their employees.
On the introduction of the 15 per cent deductions on salaries from recipients of the loans, Mr Badru said the new rate would enable them to settle the debt in a short period to allow other students to benefit from the scheme.
“This is a revolving fund; the shorter period for repayment will allow more students admitted at higher institutions of learning to be issued with bursaries,” he said.
According to the official, beneficiaries were initially subjected to deduction of 5,000/- per month from their salaries, which was then increased to 15,000/- and then 50,000/-.
“The Board then decided to set eight per cent as it was deemed unfair to charge a uniform rate for the recipients who received varied salaries. The augment to 15 per cent was made as per prevailing situation to enable them to repay the money in shorter period,” he explained.
Source: [ Daily News ]