SFAR clears air on education loans

GASABO - Emmanuel Muvunyi, the Director General of the Student Financing Agency for Rwanda (SFAR), has urged all who benefited from the students’ loan scheme and their employers to cooperate with the agency in recovering the loans. He made the call during an interview with The New Times at his offices in Remera. Muvunyi was responding to complaints lodged by various beneficiaries of the loan scheme on the procedures of repayment and criteria of awarding scholarships, among others. People are also complaining about SFAR not coming out clearly to show them the procedures followed in deducting the loan money. Others had raised complaints that they have already registered for SFAR’s loan repayment but it has not yet started deducting the money. One person, who preferred anonymity, had a concern on the criteria followed while awarding scholarships. He said that one time SFAR advertised scholarships which he applied for and sat for the exam. That, despite emerging best among the candidates who sat for that exam, he was not given a scholarship. “We partner with university professors of those institutions selected to bring students. We then set exams and the best students are selected for the scholarships. Other aspects like language strength for specific countries are also considered. So for that person, I am not sure what the problem was,” he explained. Muvunyi went ahead to explain the different determining factors for a loan. “The criteria for the student loan provision, loan repayment and the cost-sharing mechanism is determined by the ministerial order,” he explained. “For the grants, it’s different because the eligibility of a person getting a grant is provided for by the Presidential order,” he added. He disclosed that SFAR has developed a database entailing the number and whereabouts of all the people who benefited from government funds in their education and also identified their employers. “We identify the people who benefited from the loan and then track them from their employers who inform us how much they earn. We then deduct 8 percent from their gross salary,” explained Muvunyi On the same matter, the Director of loan recovery at SFAR, Desire Gaciriya revealed that the agency gives the employer two certificates, one being a declaration form which the employee fills to declare that he or she benefited from the loan and the monthly loan deduction schedule. “We started effecting the deductions from May this year and we have already recovered Few109 million. We hope to collect more by the end of the year if the concerned parties respond positively,” anticipated Gaciriya He also disclosed that a new strategy of tracking down people in the private sector through the Private Sector Federation, will soon be put in place. With effect from this year, everyone who gets a loan from SFAR will repay it at an interest rate of 5 percent. Ends

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SFAR clears air on education loans