UG not in need of student loan subvention- Finance Minister

Last Updated on Friday, 28 August 2015, 16:41 by GxMedia

Minister of Finance Winston Jordan says that the University of Guyana was not alloted anusums in the 2015 Budget estimates because there is enough in the agency’s revovling fund.

The Minister was responding to opposition allegations during Cabinet’s press briefing Friday August 28.
The People’s Progressive Party (PPP), in scrutinizing the budget estimates, pointed out that there was nothing allocated to cushion unversity payments for students.

Jordan said by now there is about $1 billion or more in the fund.

He said no allocation in the budget does not mean that the government plans to abandon the students, “but enough has accumulated in the revolving fund for the loan fund to start revolving for the first time since its inception in 1994.”

That, he said, is a combination of loan repayments and unused balancws from transfers given through the years and some interest they would have earned.

He said in this case the fund will, “revolve from this year and will probably for another 2 or maximum three (years) because there is only about a billion dollars in there.”

At an average of over $400m per year, the fund would probably serve for two years before allocations are need, Jordan indicated.