At least 58 percent of the beneficiaries of the Higher Education Students’ Financing Board (HESFB), also known as the government Student Loan Scheme, are defaulters, a senior official in the Ministry of Education and Sports has said.
Mr Michael Wanyama, the HESFB executive director, said only 42 percent of the beneficiaries have complied. He said: ‘We are calling upon those who completed their studies and are within the repayment period to prove that they don’t have any gainful income, to start repaying back the loan.’
Records indicate that more than 16,000 students have benefited through the student loan since its inception, over a decade ago. The Higher Education Student Financing Loan Scheme was introduced in 2014. Mr Wanyama said the beneficiaries are expected to start repaying the loans one year after graduation, noting that those who are still economically challenged should inform the concerned parties. He said about 2,048 students have been enrolled on the loan scheme this academic year, and on average about 1,500 students are enrolled on the scheme every academic year.
Cost
He said the unit cost for most programmes is at Shs4.5m per person per year on average. However, this stretches to about Shs7.6m per year, depending on the course one is pursuing. ‘There are those who are working and they are not making any payments,’ he said. The scheme started with less than 1,500 beneficiaries and has since increased to 2,000 beneficiaries in 2025/2026 and is projected to offer loans to about 2,500 new beneficiaries in 2026/2027 following an additional resource of Shs10b, according the Minister of Education spokesperson, Dennis Mugimba. The loan scheme is designed to support academically strong students, who are economically disadvantaged, to access higher education and caters for tuition, functional fees, research, aids and appliances for persons with disabilities.
The scheme is designed to support students in pursuing selected undergraduate diploma and degree programmes in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and a few selected humanity programmes. It also supports students with disabilities to pursue any course, including sciences or humanities. However, Mr Wanyama is concerned about defaulting beneficiaries. In the legal notice published in the newspapers yesterday, defaulters are reminded to pay their dues, in line with the Higher Education Students’ Financing Act (as Amended) and the terms and conditions of the loan agreement.
The rules
‘In particular, Section 23(1) of the Act provides that, ‘a person who received a student loan shall start repaying the loan with the specified interest at least one year after completing the higher education for which the loan was given”, according to a legal notice signed by Dr Kedrace Turyagyenda, the permanent secretary in the Education ministry. The notice explained that records of the ministry indicate that a number of beneficiaries who have completed their studies, exhausted the statutory grace period and become due for repayment and have failed to fulfil their loan repayment obligations despite repeated reminders and engagements by the Higher Education Students Financing Scheme.
All beneficiaries due for loan repayment were advised to immediately regularise their loan status by updating their information and commencing or continuing repayment of their outstanding obligations. It further started that beneficiaries who fail to comply with this notice within six months may, upon verification and where their repayment period has fully elapsed, have their names published in print and digital media and be subjected to other lawful recovery measures.