NSFAF recovered N$10 million in 2021

This comes after NSFAF struggled to recover funds given out as loans to students since it started debt collection in 1997. Some 131 000 Namibians have been funded by NSFAF between 1997 and 2019.NSFAF acting CEO Kennedy Kandume yesterday told The Namibian that during March 2022 alone, they recovered N$2,1 million.“And the highest single amount paid by an individual debtor is N$328 000,” he said.According to auditor general reports on NSFAF, in previous years the highest the institution recovered was N$6,2 million in 2013. In the 2020/2021 financial year, NSFAF collected only N$4,2 million, and in the last five years they have not been able to recover more than N$4,6 million. Kandume said this is a significant improvement in the collection of outstanding debts from past beneficiaries.“However, it is a small amount when compared to the matured loan book, which is standing at N$4,2 billion,” he said. From 2008 to 2013, the students' fund was collecting on average N$5 million per year when debt collection was done in-house.The Namibian reported in 2018 that the fund has been able to recover about N$84,6 million only, since it started debt collection in 1997. However, when it contracted external debt collectors, this amount decreased to N$4 million per year, of which about N$3,5 million a year plus a 12% commission was paid to debt collectors.Previously, Kandume said the struggle to recover the debts was due to the lack of a loan book. “All we had were physical files from those who benefited before and you could not pinpoint how much the loan was. Now, all those files, of 130 000 [loan holders], have been converted into an electronic format to indicate how much is owed to the fund and who the debtors are,” Kandume said. NSFAF's debt collection exercise has been ineffective over the years, due to alleged poor record keeping.Last year when the NSFAF management appeared before the public accounts committee, Kandume said in 2011 they requested that tertiary institutions collate the names of the students who were funded by NSFAF. In addition, they also requested bank statements to trace down the beneficiaries of loans. NSFAF has been targeting 130 000 former students who received funding since 1999.The fund has paid out a total of N$7,5 billion in loans during this time.NSFAF targets debtors who have completed their studies and are employed.In November, NSFAF vowed to publicise the names of about 52 000 student loan defaulters if they did not pay back their loans. The beneficiaries were told to contact NSFAF within the month, or face litigation or being blacklisted. The fund previously said it has the option to obtain court orders to go after defaulters' assets if need be.Since then, more than 1 000 debtors have reported to NSFAF to make payment arrangements to pay back the loans. On Wednesday, president Hage Geingob announced that there will be an amnesty on interest repayments for the next 12 months.“We, however, welcome the announcement as it gives debtors/past beneficiaries the opportunity to repay their loan without interest, which makes it cheaper,” Kandume said on Geingob's announcement.