Swazi Observer

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GOVERNMENT NEEDS E370M PER YEAR FOR SCHOLARSHIPS

By Lungelo Nkambule | 2018-03-22

Government needs a staggering E370 million to pay for Swazi students scholarships annually.

This was revealed by the Principal Secretary on the Ministry of Labour Thulani Mkhaliphi during a media briefing on the progress made by the Student Loans Recovery Consortium.

Addressing journalists the PS said government needed at least E370 million to financially support tertiary students.

The PS was responding to a question on wether government would be paying for all tertiary students now that the consortium had started recovering the money due to government.

Government currently prioritises courses and doesn’t sponsor those outside priority category.

“Government is currently sponsoring 8 900 locally and about 400 outside the country, students in tertiary need at least E370 million per annum towards their financial assistance,” he said.

He said therefore it was impossible for government to sponsor all students going to tertiary for now.

explained

“The report tabled by the consortium shows that per month they collect about E2 million, so if you do the mathematics it falls far below what we need. The money coming in is great but it is not enough as yet,” he explained.

Making his presentation the consortium’s Khanya Magagula said per month the consortium was collecting E2 million and by April they were hoping they would be collecting E5 million.

“We are currently making at least E2 million a month and by April we hope we will be collecting at least E5 million. Our projections show that in three years we will be collecting at least E15 million a month,” he said.

Magagula further stated that the response from the people had been great and at least 10 000 had already signed their consent forms and started paying.

“We have identified 28 577 beneficiaries, of which 10 000 have signed consent forms. In our data base we also have 23 804 beneficiaries we haven’t been able to identify because of various reasons,” he said.

Magagula also pointed out that government was losing at least E45 701 215 24 a month which is money that she would be getting from beneficiaries who had come forward but were unemployed.

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