Government is yet to honour the pledge it made to pay outstanding fees balances for students of the University of Malawi (Unima) who were on the verge of being withdrawn or barred from taking examinations due to outstanding fees balance.
President Peter Mutharika ordered the universities not to withdraw the students promising to bail them out.
The students were asked to fill loan forms that were later submitted to the Higher Education Students’ Loans and Grants Board but The Daily Times understands that up until now Treasury government has not given the funds to the loans board for disbursement as promised.
Dean of Students at The Polytechnic, Luciano Ndalama, said the college needs the money because the next academic year is fast approaching.
“They came to us and said that they will not allow any student to withdraw due to fees problems, so they asked us to provide forms to the students to complete so that they can be given loans. We submitted the forms to the loans board hoping the money will be given before the examinations but as I am speaking to you, no money has come to the college to that effect,” Ndalama said.
However, Ndalama was quick to add that through the students union, the loans board has promised to pay the money anytime soon.
“The PSU [Polytechnic Students] president says from the discussions he has been having with officials from the loans board, the money will soon be given out so that the students are able to access their examination results,” he said.
Commenting on the matter, Executive Director for the loans board Chris Chisoni said the board does not have money since the Treasury has not yet released the money yet.
“It’s about K500 million or K600 million that we are waiting from the Treasury. We wrote an official communication to all the universities updating them on our situation. We cannot promise that the money will be sent today, tomorrow or the other day all; what we know is that we are going to settle the balances,” Chisoni said.
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