Museveni explains student loans
Sep 15, 2011
PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni has announced that the students’ loan scheme will begin in the next financial year.
By Pascal Kwesiga
PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni has announced that the students’ loan scheme will begin in the next financial year.
In a statement issued yesterday, Museveni said the scheme was part of efforts to promote university and tertiary education for poor students.
Museveni said the programme could not be effected this academic year because the budget had already been drawn.
Under the scheme, students will be given loans to pay their tuition and pay back after they have graduated and secured employment.
In Africa, Tanzania, Ghana, South Africa, Kenya and Rwanda have student loan schemes.
Plans to introduce loans for Ugandan university students date back to 1990. Originally, the plan was to give loans to government-sponsored students to meet their living costs.
But consultants hired by the Government recommended that loans with subsidised interest rates be given to the best performing private students.
Makerere University guild president Daniel Onekalit welcomed the plan, but regretted that Uganda had taken too long to introduce it.
“The plan will help students who cannot pay tuition to get university education,†he said.
Uganda Christian University guild president Chrysostom Akwech advised that the Government should put in place a robust policy to guide the implementation of the scheme.
Akwech added that for the programme to be successful, the students should be given a reasonable period of time within which they are supposed to pay back the money.
A third-year student at Nkozi University, Paul Birinawe, said the Government should stipulate conditions for accessing loans, modes of recovering its money and how it will deal with defaulters.
PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni has announced that the students’ loan scheme will begin in the next financial year.
In a statement issued yesterday, Museveni said the scheme was part of efforts to promote university and tertiary education for poor students.
Museveni said the programme could not be effected this academic year because the budget had already been drawn.
Under the scheme, students will be given loans to pay their tuition and pay back after they have graduated and secured employment.
In Africa, Tanzania, Ghana, South Africa, Kenya and Rwanda have student loan schemes.
Plans to introduce loans for Ugandan university students date back to 1990. Originally, the plan was to give loans to government-sponsored students to meet their living costs.
But consultants hired by the Government recommended that loans with subsidised interest rates be given to the best performing private students.
Makerere University guild president Daniel Onekalit welcomed the plan, but regretted that Uganda had taken too long to introduce it.
“The plan will help students who cannot pay tuition to get university education,†he said.
Uganda Christian University guild president Chrysostom Akwech advised that the Government should put in place a robust policy to guide the implementation of the scheme.
Akwech added that for the programme to be successful, the students should be given a reasonable period of time within which they are supposed to pay back the money.
A third-year student at Nkozi University, Paul Birinawe, said the Government should stipulate conditions for accessing loans, modes of recovering its money and how it will deal with defaulters.