Africa-Press – Tanzania. DEPUTY Minister for Education, Science and Technology, Mr Omary Kipanga advised Higher Education Students’ Loans Board (HESLB) to collaborate with other stakeholders to recover loans from beneficiaries working in the private sector.
He said stakeholders such as the National Identification Authority (NIDA) and Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) must be involved to easily reach the beneficiaries.
“For you to have financial ability to provide more loans to new and continuing students, it is crucial to increase your budget, and to achieve that, it is important to work with these stakeholders in order to reach various beneficiaries, especially those in the private sector,” he said.
More than 1.2tril/- is due for collection by HESLB from its beneficiaries.
The board has also disbursed 4.8tril/- to over 583,600 Tanzanians since 1994/95, with 1.8tri/-or 47 per cent of the entire disbursement released within the last four years under President John Magufuli.
Tanzania introduced the students’ loan scheme for the first time in 1994 to cover accommodation and meal expenses for all learners with admission to public and private accredited higher learning institutions.
And, over a decade later, in July 2005, the government established HESLB for two major tasks: loan allocation to needy and qualified students; and collection of outstanding mature loans.
According to HESLB Executive Director, Abdulrazaq Badru, in January 2019, the board managed to collect 94.01bn/- from loan beneficiaries from January to December 2018, surpassing the target of collecting 71.4bn/- in a six months’ period.
Badru said the collection is equivalent to 8.7 per cent increase compared to 85.88bn/- collected in the corresponding period in 2017.
“In the past four years, the board has collected 574bn/-, almost 90 per cent of the total 641bn/- recovered since HESLB establishment in 2005,” Mr Badru said, crediting President Magufuli with the great success.
The recovered amount accounts for 63 per cent of the students’ 1.01tri/-matured loans, putting the board’s non-performing loans at 37 per cent.
He said under the current environment of improved working relations between the board and other stakeholders, compulsory HESLB deductions and beneficiaries’ willingness to repay, the board will greatly improve the loan recoveries in the near future.
“The board’s loan recoveries have within four years increased almost ten folds, from 21bn/- in 2014/15 to 183bn/-in the 2018/19 fiscal year,” said Mr Badru.
