By 
By Lwazi Dlamini
The resounding success of the Scholarship Management and Loan Recovery has been amplified by the net revenue collection of E48 301 731 made at the end of the reporting period for the Ministry of Labour and Social Security.
The Scholarship Management and Loan Recovery Programme, under the leadership of a top law firm, S.V Mdladla & Associates, was the biggest contributor to the revenue collection at the Ministry which amounted to E62 156 747, constituting about 95 per cent of the total revenue.
According to a report delivered by Sifiso Magagula, Chairman of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security Portfolio Committee, which was adopted and passed in Parliament a week ago, the ministry made a gross annual total of E60 417 463 which was collected in the period under review from three collection points of Government.
“Under the Student Study Loan Recovery project (SVNET), for the period under review, a net revenue collection of E48 301 731 was made at the end of the reporting period. When compared to the same period last financial year, this reflects an increase of E1 907 555 (4 per cent). SVENT is the consultant engaged by the Eswatini Government to collect scholarship payments from individuals who benefited from the Government Scholarship awards,” the report reads in part.
The reports further stated that the revenue collection for the Ministry increased by E645 899 when compared to the same period last financial year.
“A bulk of the revenue is collected through the Scholarship Recovery Programme which accounts for more than 95% of the total revenue collected. A total budget of E731 632 977 has been collected to the Ministry for the 2023/24 financial year, out of which E557 874 708 was released at the end of the reporting period,” the report reads in part.
The project coordinator Gugu Simelane during a presentation to a 12-member delegation from Tanzania’s High Education Students Loans Board at Castle Hotel a month ago, explained how they have successfully assisted the government to recover the study loans advanced to its citizens.
“We designed a functional scholarship online management system for the Ministry of Labour and handed it over to the Ministry in May 2019. The key activities are the automated scholarship and award system which is currently in use http://www.slas.gov.sz system to be integrated with the Treasury payment system for the accounting module to process direct payments into students accounts and produce reports.”
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“Tracking of students while in training which is ongoing. Updating Scholarship Loan Beneficiaries Database and also recovering Scholarship Loans, which is ongoing, and collections reflects an upward trend since project inception,” Simelane said.
Simelane first gave a background on how they first allowed the students to voluntarily pay back the study loan by offering a 50 per cent discount to those who did so and made payment agreements flexible so that you could pay over two times the period of the studying.
“For instance, if you studied for three years, you could back it back over six years. We got a huge response. The government had only been able to recover E13 million per annum but when we took over in 2017, they set a target of E26 million for us, but we have been able to collect an average E56 million per annum which is very impressive.”
Simelane explained this to the visiting Tanzanian delegation a month ago. The Scholarship Management and Loan Recovery Consortium is led by a prominent lawyer, Sidumo Mdladla who got the first contract in 2017 and currently has a running three-year contract which expires in February 2026.
