'Conmen now target students seeking university loans'

DESPERATE students trying to get access to government loans to finance their education at the country’s institutes of higher learning have now been forced to turn to conmen for ‘assistance’ as authorities tighten checks on the loan approval process.< A survey by The Guardian has uncovered that scammers are offering students a way to cut corners for a fee as the state-run Higher Education Students’ Loans Board (HESLB) is currently conducting a fresh verification exercise aimed at ensuring only eligible students get loans. 

Several students in Dar es Salaam are turning in desperation to unscrupulous people who have sprung up outside HESLB offices to exploit those in need of government loans.
In recent days, a group of suspected con artists has been seen hovering around HESLB headquarters in Dar es Salaam and pouncing on unsuspecting students.

Some of the scammers also contact students through popular social media platforms, pretending to offer a ‘quick fix’ to any university student who wants a loan.
Under new guidelines, thousands of students could miss government loans, triggering panic and confusion among some college-goers. 

Some of the scammers masquerade as well-connected people with inside access to HESLB and dupe students into believing that they can pull some strings and put their names on the list of approved loan recipients.

“They told me to give them 50,000/- and that within two days my name would be posted on the list of students who have been officially approved to receive loans,” said Regina Pastory, a first-year student at the University of Dodoma (UDOM) who was one of the students targeted by the conmen.
In an interview with The Guardian yesterday, HESLB’s Executive Director, Abdul- Razaq Badru, confirmed that the board had received reports of suspected con artists targeting students for a loan scam.

“We do not deal with any agents or individuals … our systems are very transparent and they are well audited,” he said.
“We do not use agents to process student loan applications.”Badru urged students and parents to report the conmen to the police.

According to HESLB, thousands of continuing students in universities and colleges who were allocated loans under past eligibility criteria may now have those loans withdrawn or slashed after the introduction of a fresh means testing exercise beginning today.
The new move will involve the screening of over 90,000 continuing university and college students across the country over a three-month period.

The loans board said students would be allowed to appeal against the verification exercise if they are disqualified from eligibility for government funding.
“HESLB is hereby informing all loan applicants that the appeals window will be open for 90 days starting from 31 October 2016,” the board said in a statement.
Students who would like to file an appeal would be required to pay a non-refundable fee of 10,000/- to the board.

“The deadline for online submission of appeals will be 31 January 2017,” it said