Public universities loans recovery deadline nears
The Higher Education Students Loans and Grants Board has warned all former students who benefitted from public loans against noncompliance in repayments of the loans as the grace period for the interest-free payment expires on March 21.
The board’s Chairperson, Chris Chisoni said the body provided the grace period from April 30 2016 to March 21 this year for all the beneficiaries to pay back the loans.
Chisoni said after the expiry of the grace period, the board will drag to court those who will not have paid with the loans calculated at an interest using the prevailing commercial lending rate.
“Now that the grace period is ending, we are asking the beneficiaries and their companies to remit the loans in the coming few days or they will pay a lot more come April 1,” he said.
Chisoni said the companies which employ beneficiaries of the loans are under legal obligation to remit the repayments of the loans to the board on behalf of their employees.
“The law demands that every employer should ask their employees to declare whether they took a student loan and notify the board, in case of any, within 30 days and arrange for the repayment procedure. Failure to do that attracts a penalty of up to K1 million for every undeclared employee,” he said.
Chisoni said the board has since given loans to 7, 532 students, both from public and private institutions, in the 2016/2017 academic year using about K2.4 billion.
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