The Higher Education Students Loans and Grants Board is finally beginning to see tangible results from its long-running push to enforce loan repayments, recovering more than K1.2 billion from former student beneficiaries in the 2024/2025 financial year.
Mzuzu University students
Board officials say the recovery marks a significant shift in accountability and signals growing compliance among graduates from both public and private universities—an area that has historically drained public resources with little return.
Communications Manager Millie Kasunda described the K1.2 billion recovery as a major milestone, saying the process has been largely smooth and reflects strengthening systems within the institution.
“This is a significant achievement for the Board,” Kasunda said. “In the 2024/2025 financial year alone, we recovered K1.2 billion in student loan repayments.”
She said progress has not slowed in the current 2025/2026 financial year. With three months still remaining, the Board has already recovered over K800 million, putting it firmly on course to meet—and possibly surpass—its K1.5 billion recovery target.
“With three months to go, recovering over K800 million is a reasonable and encouraging step towards our target,” Kasunda added.
The improved recovery rate is already translating into expanded support for students. The Board says it plans to support at least 33,000 students across the country in the 2025/2026 financial year, easing access to higher education for thousands of needy and deserving Malawians.
To sustain and scale up this support, the Board is diversifying its funding base. In addition to allocations from the Malawi Government and support from the World Bank, it is actively exploring alternative financing mechanisms to reach more students.
For the 2025/2026 financial year, the government has allocated K36 billion to the Students Loans and Grants Board, specifically earmarked to support vulnerable learners.
Education analysts say the figures point to a gradual but important cultural shift—where student loans are increasingly viewed not as handouts, but as a social contract that must be honoured to keep the system alive.
If the current momentum holds, the Board’s recovery drive could mark a turning point in the sustainability of Malawi’s higher education financing—and ensure that today’s beneficiaries make it possible for tomorrow’s students to access university education.
