By MAIMBO MWEEMBA
Higher Education Loans and Scholarships Board Bursary Loans Restructure Campaign Coordinator David Chishimba says the HELSB interest rates to back the loans are too high.
He said that those that got loans as education assistance desire to pay back but the problem is that they have to pay back twice the money given.
Mr Chishimba has since called on government to scrape off the interest on the loans, to suspend the loan deductions until the economy stabilizes and to reduce the loan deductions to 2.5% of an individual’s basic salary.
He said that paying back twice the loan which they got from the government as education assistance is unfair, stating that most of the beneficiaries do not get paid more than K5, 000 as monthly pay.
“We appreciate the assistance offered by government in terms of Bursary loans given through the Higher Education Loans and Scholarships Board (HELSB). We also have desire to pay back the loans so that other people can benefit from it in the same vain that is why we made a lone protest from Kafue roundabout to Ministry of Education to file in our position paper concerning the campaign.” He said.
Mr Chishimba said that when President Hichilema was in opposition, he sympathized with the beneficiaries and promised to restructure the loan polices.
“We would like to entertain the thought that his position hasn’t changed over our issue. We would like to appeal to the president to restructure the bursary loans policies according to the following campaign promises,” he said.
