RBZ identifies banks to fund student grants

THE Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has identified three financial institutions that will work with Government to avail educational grants to students at higher and tertiary institutions in the country.

In an interview on Friday, RBZ Governor Dr John Mangudya said discussions with the three banks were now advanced and what was left was how the loans will be structured. Most universities open for the start of their academic year in August where they are expected to absorb thousands of candidates whose A-level results were released last week.

"It is still work in progress. We are in discussions with financial institutions to come up with a structure for the loan scheme.

"We have identified three financial institutions and we are happy with the way discussions have been going," he said.

Dr Mangudya could not give specific time frames on the conclusions of the discussions and when students are expected to start accessing the loans.

"It's difficult in finance to give specific timeframes because there are a lot factors involved. We will announce details as soon as the discussions are concluded. The target is for the loans to be available as soon as possible," he said.

The Government, in December last year, announced plans to bring back student grants starting this year in an effort to improve skills and manpower development.

Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development Minister, Professor Jonathan Moyo told delegates at the Zanu-PF Annual National People's Conference in Masvingo that the students' loans would help parents and guardians who are struggling to pay higher and tertiary education fees for their children.

He said his ministry was working with RBZ to structure the loan scheme which would be run by financial institutions with proven micro-financing capacity.

"The ministry has engaged the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to structure a student loan scheme for higher and tertiary education institutions to be run by financial institutions with proven microfinancing capacity. This scheme will be launched in the coming year to help parents and guardians who are struggling to pay higher and tertiary education fees for their children," said Prof Moyo.

Student grants were discontinued around 2006 due to cash flow challenges and were replaced by the cadetship programme which started in 2010. The cadetship programme did not yield desired results as it was also dogged by funding challenges and failed to pay fees for scores of students.

Some students who were under the cadetship programme have failed to sit for examinations despite calls by the Government for institutions not to bar owing cadetship students from writing examinations. As at March last year, tertiary institutions were owed about $62 million by the Government in unpaid fees for thousands of students on cadetship.

The Government has been on record calling for patience on the part of institutions expressing its commitment to pay the amount once Treasury gets the money.

Zimbabwe National Students Union secretary-general Mr Makomborero Haruziviishe was recently quoted claiming that an estimated 42 000 students have either deferred or dropped out of universities and colleges throughout the country due to high fees. The students' leader called on Government to speed up the process of setting up a loan facility to assist higher and tertiary students pay tuition fees.