Africa-Press – Namibia. THE Namibia Students Financial Assistance Fund is planning to take 500 loan defaulters to court, as it has been struggling for over a decade to get loan holders to repay the money.
The acting chief executive officer of the Namibia Students Financial Assistance Fund (NSFAF), Kennedy Kandume, yesterday said they have names of debtors they took to their lawyers for the legal process to start.
In 2021, the fund threatened to name about 52 000 student loan defaulters and publish their names in local newspapers countrywide for not honouring their commitments.
Kandume previously said the publishing of names would be followed by “appropriate legal action”.
“We said that before, but we realised that there was a lot of background information needed before going to the courts. Now we are done with the background data and some debtors were served with demand letters,” he said. “After sending the letters, we will then take them to the litigation process.”
According to Kandume, NSFAF has contacted at least 500 debtors who will go through the litigation process.
“Only after debtors receive up to three demand letters can we proceed with the litigation process and take them to court,” he said.
Kandume said the 500 defaulters have been confirmed to be economically stable.
“There are people who are simply refusing to pay, but they were so fortunate to secure a job, so these are the people we are targeting. This is a highly subsidised debt because one is allowed to finish their studies, the only time we come to you is when you get a job. These people have been confirmed to be employed full-time,” he said.
Kandume said the list is not complete.
“The 500 debtors to be taken to court is just the beginning, as more and more debtors are being served with demand letters, failure to settle or make arrangements to pay after demand letters will result in the fund seeking a garnishee order,” he said.
At least 132 000 debtors owe the fund N$9 billion since its establishment in 1997 up to 2022.
NSFAF AMNESTY BAIT FAILS
Last year, the president announced an amnesty on interest payments on NSFAF debts to write off N$2,6 billion interest on N$5,2 billion owed by beneficiaries from 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2023.
This was meant to provide relief to the students.
The loans will start accumulating interest as of 1 July 2023. Kandume said they expected many debtors to take advantage of the amnesty period and pay off their loans, but they only recovered N$14 million.
“We were expecting lots of debtors to come forward, but so far only plus or minus 1 400 defaulters paid.
Although it’s not what we expected, we have increased the amount recovered and there is an improvement in people coming forward,” he said.
Kandume declined to share the demand letter sent to defaulters with The Namibian, saying: “We can’t do that.
It’s just sufficient to say the litigation process has started and that about 500 debtors will be taken to court.”
‘FEAR MONGERING’
Lawyer Kadhila Amoomo said there is the possibility of NSFAF being sued by the 500 former students.
“One of the debt collection mechanisms NSFAF has employed over the years was to announce to the public that they are going to court. This is simply to ride on fear-mongering so that they can persuade people to surrender themselves,” he said, adding that it was to boost their debt collection mechanism.
Amoomo said just like last year, NSFAF promised to take the defaulters to court, but they have never been on the court roll.
“I highly doubt they went to court. Even last year they made the same announcement. I have not seen them on the court roll,” he said.
Lawyer Nafimane Halweendo said if NSFAF kept proper records of the contracts signed by the students, then they have a good case.
“In law, you cannot sue someone if they do not have money. For the full-time employees, they have a good case provided that their contracts exist. Some of these people left school 15 years ago, does NSFAF have a good record indicating the contractual obligation?” he asked.
Halweendo said it is going to be a cumbersome task for students that have been funded 15 to 20 years ago.
He suggested that NSFAF could have engaged in a negotiation deal with the debtors.
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