Clause in NSFAF loan contract causes confusion

STUDENTS have requested clarity on a clause that has created the impression that the government would pay fees for only two years.

The Namibia Students Financial Assistance Fund (NSFAF) introduced the clause which stipulates that they can only provide funding for a maximum of two years. In the past, NSFAF would commit to paying for the entire duration of a student studies.

The Namibia National Students Organisation (Nanso)’s secretary general, Simon Taapopi, wrote to NSFAF last week, asking that they explain the clause in the loan agreement which many students believed meant that they would only be funded for two years of their studies, while most university or tertiary education courses ran over three or four years.

Taapopi said the clause in the contract read that the “fund shall provide the debtor with funding for a maximum of two years”, suggesting “that the fund will only, for each student who signs a loan contract this year, fund such a student for two years”.

“Consequently, this means that such a student will be responsible for paying his or her tuition and non-tuition [after that period],” the Nanso letter states.

Some students have taken to social media to register their concerns over the clause, saying that they didn’t understand why this change was introduced.

A first-year computer science student at the Namibia University of Science and Technology, Ollah Johannes (24), told yesterday that he and many other students had signed contracts which only guaranteed funding for two years.

“We are many who signed that contract, and we just did it because we do not want to end up not signing. Two years is better than nothing for now,” he said.

He added that although the NSFAF told them that the funding term confusion was caused by an error that would be corrected, he did not understand why he and many other students had to sign faulty agreements, if such was the case.

“They said that the error will be too expensive to correct now, and that we should just sign. I don’t understand why we cannot be given corrected contracts, and sign correct documents. I feel like we are being trapped and blackmailed to sign the agreements,” he said.

The NSFAF responded to Nanso a day after receiving the letter to “clarify the essence” of the clause in the loan.

“We have noted that an important part of clause 3,4 is missing on the printed version of the loan contract,” the fund wrote, adding that a part of the sentence was cut off, which led to the confusion.

They wrote that the correct loan arrangements applied to all students, including those who signed the faulty agreements.

NSFAF said although they were obligated to continue funding a student for the duration of their studies, this only applied to students who passed and progressed.

“If a student failed to submit satisfactory results, the clause sets the maximum limit of two consecutive years” for the student to provide progress reports in order for fees to be paid, the NSFAF explained.

The NSFAF’s acting chief executive, Kennedy Kandume, told yesterday that he was aware of the issue.

“There is absolutely no truth in the information out there that we are only funding students for the first two years,” he said, adding that the clause was being misinterpreted.

He admitted that the NSFAF may have contributed to the confusion as they probably should’ve hosted information sessions to explain the mistake in the printed contract, and also the meaning of the clause.

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