HE lending agencies call for protective legislation

Calls have intensified for African governments to establish legislation to help financing agencies recoup outstanding student loans, in light of the increasing number of defaults being experienced in the higher education sector.

Delegates at last month’s annual convention of the Association of African Higher Education Financing Agencies (AAHEFA), which was held in Lilongwe, Malawi, were told of the growing number of students who could not afford to pay fees and were requesting loans. However, despite the efforts of higher education financiers to approve as many loans as possible, loan board operations across Africa were being hampered by the lack of regulation pertaining to repayment.

Representatives from 50 African countries attended the convention, held at the Bingu International Conference Centre in Lilongwe from 24 to 26 September, under the theme “Innovatively Financing Higher Education for the Jobs of Tomorrow”.

HE financing bodies ask for help

AAHEFA President Charles Ringera, also the CEO of the Higher Education Loans Board in Kenya, implored African nations to develop policies to recoup outstanding loans from former students. “Authorities should take a leading role in helping higher education financing institutions to recover loans from former public university students,” he said.

According to the executive director of the Malawi Higher Education Students Loans and Grants Board, Chris Chisoni, the biggest challenge was the lack of a legal framework for collecting outstanding loans, but “we have put in place different strategies to resolve the challenge” and the board was working with Malawi’s Parliamentary Committee on Laws to this effect.

Some delegates also observed that many African universities were not investigating alternative funding for fees.

Chisoni advised that they “rethink new financing models to stay afloat. We discussed the use of trust funds … in funding higher education agencies, as well as changing the discourse on private higher education.”

Government’s duty to help students

Malawi Minister of Education, Science and Technology Bright Msaka said governments had a duty to assist disadvantaged students: “There is a rising need for governments to put in place financing mechanisms for [such] students. It is, therefore, paramount that higher education financing agencies in Africa be properly financed, so that no deserving student fails to access higher education because of a lack of financial support. It is only then that we can ensure equitable access to higher education for all our youth.”

He added that the conference fostered international cooperation and strategic alliances among like-minded organisations.

Quoting former South African president, the late Nelson Mandela, Msaka said: “Education is the great engine of personal development. It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor; that the son of a mineworker can become the head of the mine; that a child of farmworkers can become the president of a great nation.”

The convention drew delegates from the Kenyan Higher Education Loans Board, Tanzanian Higher Education Students’ Loans Board, the Ghana Students Loan Trust Fund, the Ugandan Higher Education Students’ Financing Board, Botswana’s Human Resource Development Council, South Africa’s National Student Financial Aid Scheme, Lesotho’s National Manpower Development Secretariat, the Namibia Students Financial Assistance Fund, the Development Bank of Rwanda, the Zambian Higher Education Loans and Scholarships Board and Malawi’s Higher Education Students Loans and Grants Board.

The AAHEFA was formed in 2008 with the aim of enhancing better higher education funding policies and practices in Africa.