The board's communications manager, Millie Kasunda has told Zodiak Online on Tuesday that the employees; most of them former loan beneficiaries have helped the institution to get K235 million in the last fiscal year which is way higher than K74 million of the previous year.

Kasunda has disclosed that this year, the board has set aside K13.7 billion to benefit 22, 406 students in both public and private universities and colleges in the 2023/2024 loan cycle.

"We are pleased with what beneficiaries are doing in coming forth themselves to repay the loan and also employers who are helping us with deductions from their employees. We have made a big strides in terms of recovery due to this," said Kasunda.

However, it has been observed that the funding trend remains higher, as for instance in 2021, the board received K9 billion, but disbursed K12.9 billion, the same as in 2022 where it gotten K12 billion funding and K14 billion went to needy students.

Kasunda said this is the case because the board invests some funds before disbursing them to other students due to different school calendars and get interests that in turn pay more others.

Meanwhile, education analyst Dr. Limbani Nsapato is suggesting for a continued awareness on the need to repay the loans, arguing there are alot of former beneficiaries who are yet to repay and many students needing help.

"This is good news, but the loans board needs to intensify awareness raising and contact various employers to assist. This is especially because there are alot of them that are yet to repay their loans,"he suggested.

This comes as the institution had from 2015 been struggling to recover the loans from the former beneficiaries.