The Higher Education Students Loans and Grant Board has advised local companies in Malawi to give details of employees who benefited from public universities loan schemes saying companies found shielding defaulters will be fined.
The loans body disclosed that there are some local companies that have not yet submitted names of their employees who are yet to pay back money used for their tertiary studies.
Executive director for the loans body Chris Chisoni said the law mandates companies to provide details of their employees who made it to the end of their tertiary education journey using government loans.
Chisoni disclosed that a company is to be fined with a sum of K1 million on each graduate if found shielding their employees from paying the loans.
The body has since set March 2017 as the closing period for recovering the loans and that if any student fails to settle a loan by that time, they are to be dragged to court and will pay the loans with interest.
The higher education loans body has intensified efforts to recover up to K1.7 billion matured loans from Malawians who accessed public university loans and graduated between 1985 and 2012.
Since it was established, the body has managed to collect K36 million from students who acquired the loans.
Various stakeholders have been calling on former students to pay the loans arguing that it will help make the scheme viable to the needy students in Malawi.
I employed someone and will ensure that I deduct but I don’t know the outstanding sum.
Government as an employee is also shielding us. They must be the first to pay the fine. Let’s see if the board’s boss will have his job. Kkkkkkkk
loan board eiisshh