These loans were issued under the government bursary scheme to students pursuing higher education at the University of Rwanda.
The figure was disclosed in BRD's 2024 annual report, which noted that 2024 recorded the highest annual recovery, with Frw 7.2 billion collected from loan beneficiaries that year alone.
Since 2016, when BRD was officially mandated to manage and recover student loans, the institution has recovered a total of Frw 34.7 billion.
This marks a significant effort in recent years, considering that by 2023, only Frw 24.4 billion had been repaid from a total loan portfolio of Frw 221.85 billion.
The Government of Rwanda first introduced the student loan program in 1980. In 2016, BRD assumed full responsibility for both loan disbursement and collection, taking over an existing loan book valued at Frw 70.9 billion. As of July 2024, the bank had disbursed over Frw 376.9 billion in student loans.
Under current ministerial regulations, loan beneficiariesâ€"or their employersâ€"who fail to make timely repayments incur a 1.5% monthly penalty on the outstanding amount.
This penalty applies starting from the day the beneficiary begins formal employment or signs a repayment agreement, as outlined in Article 22 of the regulation. Even a delay of less than a month is counted as a full month for penalty purposes.
The aim of this penalty is to encourage compliance and ensure the sustainability of the loan scheme so that future generations of students can also benefit.
In an earlier interview with IGIHE, Wilson Rurangwa, Head of the Education Loan and Bursary Division at BRD, highlighted several challenges that have slowed down loan recovery.
One major issue involves employers who deduct loan repayments from employees' salaries but fail to remit the funds to BRD.
'There are cases where employers, after being notified that an employee received a government loan, deduct the repayment amount but do not transfer it to BRD,' Rurangwa said. 'We have seen instances where this happened for four consecutive months.'
He also noted that some individuals remain listed as debtors despite having completed their repayments, usually due to administrative or reporting errors. In such cases, BRD encourages affected individuals to come forward with documentation so that any overpayments can be refunded.
Rurangwa further explained that some employers fail to properly declare the deducted payments to BRD, which results in loan balances appearing unpaid even though the funds were received.
'BRD cannot identify the payee unless the employer reports the transaction,' he emphasized. 'That's why the law requires employers to always notify BRD when making deductions.'
An audit conducted by BRD across 28 major institutions operating in Rwanda revealed that none of them were fully compliant with regulations governing student loan repayment deductions.
These gaps, Rurangwa said, remain a key barrier to improving recovery rates and ensuring accountability in the system.
IGIHE
