The Namibia Students Financial Assistance Fund (NSFAF) is planning to garnish bank accounts of 88,640 debtors who owe the fund N$4,215 billion.
“We are seeking legal options to recoup the debt, one of which is obtaining a court order to deduct money from the defaulter’s pay directly through a garnishee order,” NSFAF’s Senior Manager for Marketing and Communications Percy Tjahere told The Brief.
A garnishee order is a legal notice the court issues that allows the creditor to collect the amount either from the debtor’s wages or the debtor’s bank account.
He said the Fund was seized with litigation and blacklisting loan beneficiaries who are economically active but failing to service their study loans after its amnesty did not yield any positive results.
“The turnout of defaulters is actually not positive, we anticipated higher numbers of defaulters to come and settle their student loan or make necessary repayment arrangements. Regrettably, the number of defaulters remains high. Hence, we are proceeding with the blacklisting and litigation of the defaulters,” said Tjahere.
The amnesty period that was proclaimed between 1 July 2022 and 30 June 2023, resulted in N$2.6 billion in interest being totally waived, and had no beneficial outcomes for the fund, with no rise in defaulter turnout.
NSFAF Acting Chief Executive Officer Kennedy Kandume said the Fund noticed with concern that debtors were only contacting it to avoid having their names published while pretending to pay when the true motive was never to settle their debts.
“We are aware that they are employed and have assets, earning income, and thus we are left with no choice but to take these people through the litigation process as they have been handed over to the legal department and it is only a matter of time until they are served to head to court,” he said.
Furthermore, NSFAF hopes to attach the debtor’s assets if they refuse to pay because this is a “debt like any other debt and must be repaid”.
