–Dr Jagdeo says
PERSONS who are interested in benefiting from the government’s student loan write-off initiative are not mandated to provide proof of employment or contributions to the country’s National Insurance Scheme (NIS), People’s Progressive Party (PPP) General Secretary and Guyana’s Vice-President, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo has clarified.
Dr Jagdeo, during a news conference at the party’s Georgetown headquarters, told reporters that the government is aware that some graduates of the University of Guyana (UG) might have been unemployed and might have not made a certain amount of contributions to NIS.
He highlighted that this is not a requirement to benefit from the government’s initiative.
“You don’t have to provide that evidence of a 156 contributions made to the NIS, we want to make this easy for our people who have outstanding loans. We don’t want to put in conditions that will create or minimise the impact of this initiative, which we believe can help a lot of people,” Dr Jagdeo said.
Further, he related that the government will be examining a mechanism to assist those students who would have already paid their dues to the university, but are currently repaying loans to commercial banks.
Earlier this week, Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance and the Public Service, Dr. Ashni Singh, announced Phase One of the government’s plan to write off the loans of University of Guyana (UG) students.
The initiative is in keeping with the government’s manifesto commitment to deliver free tertiary education by 2025.
This first phase, Dr. Singh said, could potentially benefit over 13,000 Guyanese who have $11 billion in student loans.
“In keeping with our One Guyana vision, and in line with our party’s people-centred approach to development, and our manifesto, the government remains committed to providing free tertiary education to Guyanese by 2025,” Dr. Singh had said.
Back in December 2023, President Dr. Irfaan Ali had announced that a phased programme will be implemented to achieve free tertiary education at the country’s premier institution.
The Head of State had disclosed then that persons who currently have loans at the university will be the first group of the student population the phased approach will target.
