{"id":18689,"date":"2022-08-12T11:47:50","date_gmt":"2022-08-12T11:47:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/nmds-owes-colleges-m350-million"},"modified":"2022-08-12T12:35:55","modified_gmt":"2022-08-12T12:35:55","slug":"nmds-owes-colleges-m350-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/nmds-owes-colleges-m350-million","title":{"rendered":"NMDS owes colleges M350 million"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>THE government is struggling to pay a staggering M350 million in tuition for tertiary students on state bursaries in local colleges and universities. About 80 percent of students in tertiary institutions are sponsored by the state.
\nThe government has been battling to clear the debt since last year. Some institutions are now struggling to pay salaries and other operations expenses.<\/p>\n

Others have resorted to withholding students\u2019 results to force the government to clear the arrears. The National University of Lesotho (NUL), which is owed M51 million, has told students they will not get their results until the government pays.<\/p>\n

Selibe Mochoboroane, the Minister of Development Planning, has confirmed the M350 million debt most of which he said is owed to NUL. The NUL Student Representative Council (SRC) President, Reatlehile Makateng, said students are stranded after the university refused to release their results.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe previous academic year was completed without any payment.<\/p>\n

Our contract with the school is simple, failure to pay fees means results will not be published and, unfortunately, most of us are sponsored,\u201d Makateng said.<\/p>\n

He said those who have graduated are unable to apply for jobs because they don\u2019t have their transcripts. Those who want to pursue postgraduate courses are also stranded.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been here before and out of pity, the university released results, afterwards, the government never bothered to pay and it was a bad debt written off.<\/p>\n

The council ordered them to avoid this in future,\u201d he said. Liteboho Maqalika-Lerotholi, the NUL Registrar, said the decision to withhold results is not meant to punish students.<\/p>\n

Maqalika-Lerotholi said the university\u2019s regulations are that students should pay at least 40 percent of their tuition before registration. She said the university has however made an exception for government students because of the good relationship with the NMDS.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey always pay soon after the registration and the first payment often covers more than 50 percent of the tuition,\u201d Maqalika-Lerotholi said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis time there has been a very long delay that has severely affected our operations.<\/p>\n

It is important to understand that 80 percent of our students are sponsored by the government. \u201d \u201cWhen the government doesn\u2019t pay, the results are the only thing we can hold on to.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s as per our regulations,\u201d she said. The Lerotholi Polytechnic Registrar, Maleshoane Lepota, confirmed that the NMDS owes but declined to disclose figures.<\/p>\n

Lepota said the government has made a payment but there is still a substantial balance. \u201cIt is not a problem unique to this year. However, because of Covid, the entire world is under strain financially, and this could be another dimension to the problem this year,\u201d Lepota said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe polytechnic has continually kept communication channels open, and the same has been done on the side of NMDS, they have kept in constant communication and made us aware that there may be delays with regard to completing payment.
\n\u201cOur relationship has been managed through communication despite these challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201d She however said the delay has severely affected the college\u2019s cash flow.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur main source of income is student fees as well as subvention and consequently our operational plans are based on those sources of income and if there are payment delays, the operations are affected negatively.
\nThe Finance and Procurement Officer at the Centre for Accounting Studies (CAS), \u2019Makatleho Lephallo, said financial matters between the institution and the NMDS were confidential.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t need any intervention from outside,\u201d Lephallo said. The NMDS spokesman, Moeketsi Rankhone, said M50 million of the M100 million owed to NUL was paid two weeks ago.<\/p>\n

Rankhone said the university has promised to release the results. \u201cAll higher learning institutions are owed but we are in the process of settling the debts.<\/p>\n

For NUL, we are still in talks,\u201d he said, adding that the government has a financial crisis. Mochoboroane said the financial crisis is so serious that the government has stopped allocating funds quarterly.<\/p>\n

He said the money is now released monthly and the ministry has to share it among the schools. \u201cWe had to prioritise students\u2019 allowances over tuition,\u201d Mochoboroane said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not like we don\u2019t want to pay but there is a serious financial crisis and it\u2019s not avoidable.
\n\u201cWe are hoping to finish off the debts by this month so that we will be able to deal with the new intake.<\/p>\n

\u201d The Ministry of Finance\u2019s Accountant General, \u2019Malehlohonolo Mahase, confirmed the cash flow crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of Covid-19 and lockdown restrictions, tax collection has been very slow,\u201d Mahase said.<\/p>\n

She however said they expect to pay M100 million this week and another M50 million next week. \u201cAfterwards, we will start processing that of August intake,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Lesotho<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. THE government is struggling to pay a staggering M350 million in tuition for tertiary students on state bursaries in local colleges and universities. About 80 percent of students in tertiary institutions are sponsored by the state. The government has been battling to clear the debt since last year. Some institutions are now […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":18688,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,8,16],"tags":[233,246,270,245],"class_list":["post-18689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-covid-19","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"\nNMDS owes colleges M350 million - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"THE government is struggling to pay a staggering M350 million in tuition for tertiary students on state bursaries in loc ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/nmds-owes-colleges-m350-million\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NMDS owes colleges M350 million\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"THE government is struggling to pay a staggering M350 million in tuition for tertiary students on state bursaries in loc ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/nmds-owes-colleges-m350-million\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-08-12T11:47:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-08-12T12:35:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/08\/postQueueImg_12-62f648ee3fc4e.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1083\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"690\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/nmds-owes-colleges-m350-million#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/nmds-owes-colleges-m350-million\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"NMDS owes colleges M350 million\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-08-12T11:47:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-08-12T12:35:55+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/nmds-owes-colleges-m350-million\"},\"wordCount\":798,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/nmds-owes-colleges-m350-million#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/08\/postQueueImg_12-62f648ee3fc4e.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"COVID-19\",\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\",\"homepage-english\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/nmds-owes-colleges-m350-million#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/nmds-owes-colleges-m350-million\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/nmds-owes-colleges-m350-million\",\"name\":\"NMDS owes colleges M350 million - 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