Loan scheme unfair to north, east - UPC

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Unfairness. The opposition political party says government should have given special consideration to students from the two regions that were affected by the LRA war.

KAMPALA. Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) party has alleged unfairness and regional imbalance in the selection of beneficiaries for the students’ loan scheme.
On Monday, the government launched the first phase of the programme that will see needy but bright university students access loans from the State to finance their higher education. At least 1,200 students, both in public and private universities, benefited.
However, a UPC official yesterday told journalists that the selection of beneficiaries saw few students from the northern and eastern regions taken on board, citing favoritism and poor design of the scheme as it reportedly failed to address equity issues.
Mr Okello Lucima, the UPC publicist, told the party’s weekly press conference that compared to the west and central regions, the north looked disfavored.
“If the government’s aim is to help needy students access university education, the northern and eastern regions should have been given priority because they are already poorly represented on government sponsorship,” Mr Lucima said.
He added: “The government ought to have considered positive discrimination in terms of entry into institutions because of the hardships in the regions. The government is aware of the hardships in those areas but it ignored them deliberately.”
He, however, did not back up his claims with figures when pressed to substantiate.
But according to the list given to the media earlier, at least 448 students from the western region benefited, 339 from east, central had 287 while the north had 157 taken on board.
The Higher Education Students Financing Board acting executive director, Mr Michael Wanyama, refuted claims, saying the board carried out a transparent exercise.
“We carried out a transparent exercise by considering all the applicants but of course we couldn’t give all the applicants,” he said.
Mr Wanyama said the issue of regions was not considered. “Regions were talked about long ago, even before we were born. That is why we do not have governors,” he said, adding that “Uganda is not demarcated according to regions but districts and constituencies.” He said there is no arrangement that can satisfy everybody.
“We avoided regions to do away with such complaints but people always find something to complain about. I don’t know how best they wanted us to do this,” he said.
“For example 83 per cent of the students from Agogo District were awarded the loan, 90% from Amuria, 82 per cent from Butaleja and we had one applicant from Kaabong who was successful making it 100%. There is no way we could know that an applicant was from a particular region because we considered everyone as a Ugandan,” Mr Wanyama explained.
But the congressman said the North and East are unique regions which should be treated differently. “You cannot use the same yardstick for a student in Kampala and that from the north who has suffered the effects of the Lord’s Resistance Army war,” said Mr Lucima.
The north and north eastern parts of the country have suffered long periods of armed conflict with the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels led by Joseph Kony and the government forces wreaking havoc. People were hounded into Internally Displaced peoples’ camps for years. Since 2006, however, the government restored peace and embarked on a recovery programme for the war affected areas.
According to the UPC, the loan scheme would have been better designed and managed if the key stakeholders were consulted and engaged, saying that under the current design of catering for tuition alone, it was unreasonable to ignore other expenses involved in university education.
“How will a student from Kaabong District for example be able to study in Kampala without food and accommodation? You cannot assume that every student lives a stone throw from a university,” Mr Lucima said.

Meanwhile, Mr Lucima said that President Museveni’s emphasis on Science courses in the scheme is a miscalculation. “The problem is that he studied long ago during the mono-syllabi period and he doesn’t understand a multidisciplinary syllabus. You cannot disregard arts because this country needs planners, thinkers and administrators,” Mr Lucima said.
Mr Lucima said the whole scheme needs an overhaul in order to reflect a national character and equity if it is intended for the needy.
“By imposing commercial bank rates of 7 per cent on student loans, it will make their lives even harder. The loans, if they are to help, would be offered at zero interests rates,” he said.
Government has put an interest of 7 per cent on the loans; meaning for Shs4 million each student will get every year will attract an interest of Shs280,000.
Mr Lucima also said that if the government intended to create access and equity, it would have catered for a reasonable number. He described the number of students that have been awarded (1,269) as despicable.
He said the government has hurried to implement the policy ahead of the 2016 general elections for political reasons.
“The NRM is rushing to implement the policy because it was talked about by political parties during the 2006 general elections. The NRM keeps implementing policies for political reasons and that is why they backfire,” Mr Lucima noted.

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