No guarantors needed to access loans from SLB

Effective April 1, applicants to the Students’ Loan Bureau (SLB) will not require guarantors to access tertiary financing.

The disclosure was made by Minister of Finance and the Public Service Dr Nigel Clarke as he opened the 2024-25 Budget Debate in the House of Representatives on Tuesday.

Clarke noted that the requirement of a guarantor for student loans is regressive, as it discriminates against low-income families who cannot easily, if at all, find guarantors.

“The policy has been in place for several decades and we are happy to abolish the requirement for guarantors for student loans,” he said.

Clarke shared that an assessment of copious amounts of data related to SLB delinquency revealed that payments are rarely made by guarantors.

“In all but a few instances, guarantors have served the purpose of locating students,” he said.

In recent years, the Government has made changes to improve access to tertiary financing.

In the 2022-23 Budget, the Government removed the requirements for guarantors to be provided for applicants who are wards of the State.

“Within the 12 months of that policy change, the number of wards of the State who applied to the SLB increased by 100 per cent, from 46 to 98,” Clarke said.

Last year, the guarantor requirement was removed for applicants from the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH) households.

The number of PATH beneficiaries who have accessed the SLB increased from 192 to 547 in the 2023-24 financial year, representing an increase of 185 per cent.