Over 1,700 students who registered for the students’ loan scheme are to start repaying the loan as per the terms and conditions of the contract.

Mr Michael Wanyama, the Higher Education Students’ Financing Board director,said that a total of 1,751 beneficiaries of the students’ loan scheme have finalized with their studies and are expected to start paying the loans they received from government.

Of the 1751 students, 820 are still under the one-year grace period that the board offers to each beneficiary to allow them time to look for a job.

“At least 931 students are eligible to start paying the loan. The rest are still in their one-year grace period. But this does not stop them from paying if they can find any form of work that has monetary value. We are into a series of meetings and few students have started paying,” Mr Wanyama said.

According to Wanyama, the board has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Uganda Federation of Employers to provide more sensitization and engage their members on their responsibilities once they employ the loan beneficiary.

For example, once the beneficiary has received formal employment, deductions of not more than 30 per cent of their net pay should be made to repay the loan every month until it is all recovered.

However, those who are still unemployed should not be frightened but are encouraged to continuously update the board on their developments as agreed upon on their repayment schedule.

The board started giving out loans to students four years ago with a Shs5 billion annual contribution.