Since the 1980s, the Government of Rwanda has been providing loans to Rwandan students to study in national and international Institutions of Higher Learning. Presently, the government of Rwanda through the ministry of education has rejuvenated the mechanism of loan recovering exercise. The exercise is practically implemented by the Student Financing Agency for Rwanda (SFAR) and is expected to recover the funds from those who benefited from loans. Loan recovery exercise will help the poor to access quality education. Since money invested in educating students in high institutions of learning at different levels ranging from diploma holders to PHD level is paid back and used to benefit others who wish to join universities or other high institutions of learning, then there is ‘recycling’ of funds with in the education system. This helps the future generations of students are to benefit from the funds that were used to educate their elder brothers and sisters. It also helps the government to save money and economize resources in one way or the other, as the money spent on education sector is paid back through loan recovery scheme. This system of loan recovery will help the country’s education sector to be self sustaining, and hence help in the achievement of the targeted goals in vision 2020. If the programme of loan recovery becomes successful then there will be an increase on the number of students joining the high institutions of learning each year to come. Through loan recovery scheme, the government is able to save and allocate funds in other development sectors or activities aimed at solving various challenges facing the country today. This is why SFAR roles, should be looked at both social and economic perspective. Short falls Since the beginning of 2008 academic year, SFAR took the initiative to provide loans only to needy students or those who come from poor families, whereas those from families with a sustainable income are entitled to pay for their education. This new procedure to identify needy students to benefit from the new government’s loan scheme for higher education has come under criticism with several students from various institutions of learning raising complaints about its reliability. Some of the unsuccessful loan applicants complain that the Students Financing Agency for Rwanda (SFAR) insisted on written documents to prove one’s financial status instead of looking at the issue from a more comprehensive perspective. Although SFAR has described the scheme as a means to end bursary misallocations, some students find the process inefficient. Based on the above arguments the new bursary allocation procedures need scrutiny, though in a recent interview with The New Times, the Director General of SFAR Emmanuel Muvunyi dismissed students’ allegations saying that the institution conducted a fair and transparent screening exercise to determine students that really need the assistance. The selection criteria of the agency to select students who qualify for the loan needs constant revision as several students complain of missing on the final lists sent by SFAR to various high institutions of learning. The period of one month the agency used to ascertain financial capacities of all applicants was too short to get the reality. Concurrent problems arising from the new procedures of the agency allocation of loans has seen all tertiary institutions starting their academic curriculum late and this might affect their studies throughout this year. Early this year, all Belgium based professors teaching at the medical school of the national university of Rwanda complained of the delay by the faculty to resume their academic duties. Most of them had booked air tickets to fly in the country and prepared to start their teaching program on 7th January 2008. They became disappointed as they lost the money they had used to book for air tickets to and from Rwanda. Students who had qualified for loans are also complaining of lack of money to keep them at school as the new procedure seem to have rocked budgetary release of the loans to students on time. It is estimated that over 80 percent of the applicants who applied for loans in the first and second phases had passed the screening exercise. The only question mark remains on how efficient is the agency’s criteria to study and allocate the bursaries as some of loan applicants might have filled false information regarding the income status of their families so as to benefit from the loan scheme for this year. The baseline for tuition fees at higher learning education is at Frw530, 000 for social sciences and the maximum at Frw1, 325,000 for medicine course study annually. Normally Rwandan private university students have been paying Frw300, 000 annually, while foreign students pay Frw500, 000. The government currently spends Frw1.2m on a government-sponsored varsity student in social sciences and Frw1.5m for a student in sciences. Nonetheless, all these are fordable loans compared to what private universities demand. What is important is the streamlining of the SFAR screening process so that the beneficiary meets the set criteria. Ends
