Pension funds told to lend HESLB helping hand

BY LUSEKELO PHILEMON

Deputy Finance minister Mwigulu Nchemba announces new products offered by PPF Call Centre and Mobile Application at the 24th annual general meeting of the fund's stakeholders at AICC yesterday.

The government yesterday called on social security funds to start paying fees for students in higher learning institutions, so as to give relief to the Higher Education Students’ Loan Board (HESLB), which is being overwhelmed.

Finance Deputy minister Mwigulu Nchemba made the call here when officially opening the three-day 24th PPF Members Meeting taking place at the Arusha International Conference Centre (AICC).

The PPF meeting brought on board more than 1,000 participants from within and outside the country.

 The minister stated that there are reports that this year alone a total of 20,000 university students are likely to miss education loans from the country’s loan board.
 “Last year more than 13,000 scholars failed to be granted with loans. As more students continued to join tertiary education, alternative sources of loans for the learned ones, are now needed,” he said.

Nchemba was of the view that, PPF as well as other local pension schemes have a role to play in ensuring that they complement the government’s role in financing higher education in the country.

“It is high time PPF sat down and contemplated how the fund can support members who are pursuing higher education. By doing so, you would be reducing competition on meager financial resources with students who are fresh from school.”

The minister however hailed the determined role of the pension funds are taking in boosting the country’s higher education by investing in building colleges and universities, pointing that PPF had invested 8.5bn/- in the construction of Nelson Mandela African Institute of Science and Technology as well as participating in the establishment of the Computer Science Faculty at the University of Dodoma which currently accommodates 3,000 students per year.

By June this year, about 813 students had graduated from the faculty, something has helped to boost the number of computer science experts in the country.

For his part, PPF Board Chairman, Ramadhan Khija explained that the pension fund has spent 770m/- to pay for the education of 1,100 students from kindergarten to high school this year with the Form Five and Six segments added effective from January 2014.
According to Khija, all the beneficiaries are members of PPF members.