The Development Bank of Rwanda (BRD) plans to handle the student’s loan scheme separately from other banking operations, Business Times has learnt.

The bank is already in final stages of opening new premises in Kacyiru near the Bank of Kigali. The office is expected to start operations by the end of this year, according to BRD chief executive officer, Alex Kanyankole.

"We expect to launch the office sometime soon to handle the students’ loans. However, nothing else in particular has changed about the scheme,” Kanyakole told the Business Times over the weekend.

Earlier this year, the Ministry of Education and BRD signed a deal seeking to improve student loans disbursement and recovery.

The 10-year contract gives BRD these duties although the beneficiaries will be selected by government. The law governing the scheme’s operations has already been gazetted.

Kanyakole said the new offices provide more space for customers and will help improve service delivery.

"We felt having separate offices was essential to serve the students better and efficiently,” he added.

Previously, loan beneficiaries have been slow on repayment, with the Rwanda Education Board (REB) failing to recover billions of francs in student loans. Some 3,635 earlier beneficiaries could not be traced. However, the bank seems to have put in place strategies to ensure full loan recovery going forward.