Latest update February 22nd, 2025 12:54 PM
Latest News
- $277.9M Mabaruma Magistrates’ Court commissioned at Mabaruma
- Min. Indar scolds contractors over unsanctioned works days after VP Jagdeo called out ministry’s shoddy management of construction sites
- White House expects Ukraine to sign critical minerals deal soon
- Simplify cash grant distribution processes
- Peacemaker chopped after intervening in argument
UG lends $9.4B, but only recovers $1.5B – Finance Minister
Finance Minister, Winston Jordan
Finance Minister, Winston Jordan, has revealed that a whopping $5.4B is owed to the University of Guyana Student Loan Agency as very few graduates have been repaying the revolving fund.
The Finance Minister told a gathering of Social Science students and lecturers at the George Walcott Lecture Theatre at the University of Guyana, Turkeyen Campus recently, that between 1994 and 2015 over $9.4B in loans have been awarded to students.
Of that, he said $1.5B has been repaid to date. According to Jordan, $5.4B is due payable by thousands of students who have benefitted and have not been making good on their agreement.
“This is a sore issue,” remarked Jordan as he urged the undergrads to consider the generations of students to come who will need to access loans. He asked that students ensure that when the time comes, they make good on payments to the institution.
The Minister explained to the gathering that the student loan was set up as a revolving fund, one which started in 1994 under the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) rule when fees to the University of Guyana were reintroduced.
From the inception of the institution in 1973 to 1976, it cost students $100 per annum to study at the institution, said Jordan. In 1976, paying for tertiary education at this institution was abandoned and obtaining qualifications at the University was free until fees were reintroduced in1994 during the rule of Dr. Cheddi Jagan, leader of the PPP/C.
Recently, Vice Chancellor of the University, Dr. Jacob Opadeyi, had suggested that the loan agency be removed from government and students should be made to approach commercial banks, credit unions and other financial institutions for loans.
The Finance Minister said, however, that if that measure was taken, the halls of the university would see a significant reduction in the number of students.
“If we were to do that, many of you would not be here because commercial banks would require all kinds of documentation and different criteria would have to be satisfied. Very few of you would be here so we would not be doing that,” promised the Finance Minister.
He said that the government will retain control of the Student Loan Agency “for the time being” on Campus. The government Minister revealed too, that a new facility is being erected next to the Education Lecture Theatre to house the Student Loan Agency.
The facility, he said, would be erected to ensure the comfort of students who would be using the agency. At present, the Student Loan Agency is a small wooden structure and at peak times, students would form long lines and be made to wait in the sun, given that space is not readily available for them to sit in the building.
“We are doing the best that we can for students because human resource is extremely important for the development of any country. At the same time you have to do your part. You are not being smart by not repaying the loan. In fact, your morals are in question when you do that,” intimated the government Minister.
Jordan told the batch of Social Science students that should they fail to repay their loan they would be depriving students in years to come, who would need the loan award to pursue their studies. “Please remember the people who are coming behind you to use that same system,” said Jordan.
The Minister also made clear the reason government had not made allocations for the student loan in this year’s budget. He said there is sufficient money in the Student Loan Fund for it to revolve for the first time.
“It would revolve for many more years if you (the students) and all those who were before you and those that come after you, repay their money,” Jordan ended.
(Sunita Samaroo)
Similar Articles
THE BLUNT OF THE DAY
Sports
Features/Columnists
The clock and the cloud
Peeping Tom… Kaieteur News- Time, as the ancients knew, is a trickster. It slips through the fingers of kings and commoners... more
CARICOM Nations Should Respond Together To new U.S. Policies
By Sir Ronald Sanders Ambassador to the US and the OAS, Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News-Two Executive Orders issued by U.S.... more
Weekend Cartoon
