KAMPALA – The High Education Students’ Financing Board (HESFB) has urged the public to be alert to the growing threat of student loan scams targeting beneficiaries.
HESFB is a fund intended to provide financing to Ugandan students who have qualified for higher education in recognized institutions of higher learning but are unable to support themselves financially.
The plea comes as some unscrupulous agencies and person have taken advantage of the ongoing loan scheme process to defraud innocent Ugandans of their hard earned money purporting to help students get on the student loan scheme.
Victims of student loan scheme fraud are often targeted while paying for application fees and banks and fake adverts on social media.
The naive senior six leavers are then contacted by fraudsters purporting to help students get on the student loan scheme on a fee.
The scammer tells the victim they have to pay an upfront fee for the student loan which they ultimately never receive.
“The High Education Students’ Financing Board (HESFB) wishes to inform all intending loan Scheme applicants and the general public that selection of loan scheme beneficiaries is carried out through a well established selection criteria that uses special means test comprising of a combination indicators and other basic considerations to end up at the final list of only befitting beneficiaries,” the board noted in a statement obtained by PML Daily.
The students’ loan financing board also said that process is coupled with robust verification exercise to establish consistency of information and eliminate fraud and that no payment is made to any individual for purpose of securing the student loan.
“Fraudsters are hereby warned that impersonation and extortion are criminal offences punishable under laws of Uganda,” warned the board.
The Higher Education Students’ Financing Board (HESFB) is a body Corporate established by an Act of Parliament, number 2 of 2014, to provide both Loans and Scholarships to Ugandan Students to pursue higher Education.
The 1995 constitution chapter 4. article 30 provides that all persons have a right to Education and this is expounded in the preamble to the constitution which provides for national objectives and directive principles of state policy that directs the state to take appropriate, measures to afford every Ugandan equal opportunities to attain the highest standards possible.
