By Chisomo Phiri

BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)-The Maravi Post has established that some needy students at the Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST) are struggling with school because the money that were given to them by the loans board for accommodation and other necessities is believed to be used by other school staff members.

One of the concerned students (name withhold), has disclosed this in an audio which Maravi Post has in possession.

The student says in 2022 academic year, he applied for a loan and bonding fee at the loans board and luckily enough he was picked for both.

He says, what surprised him is that the time he was told by the board to check the money in his account, he did not find the money deposited into the account.

” As a needy student, I applied for loan and bonding fee at the loans board knowing that on my own I can’t afford the expensive life at school. Luckily enough I was picked for both.

“We were told to check into our accounts if the money has been deposited, surprisingly, I and other fellow students didn’t find any amount in the accounts. This forced us who did not received our amounts to go to the Dean of Students and find why our money was not deposited. Honestly, we didn’t get a tangible reason to this,” he says.

The needy student added that, they were told that the loans board was not yet processed their amounts.

“We were told that our money was not yet processed by the loans board. In the process of pressuring them on this, others were told to go and check into the accounts where they found the money deposited, so we were shocked of what was happening. We believed that they wanted to use the money for their own purposes,” says a student in an audio.

He reveals that this has been happening for long, that is from first semester and now into second semester.

“This started last semester, and it has been happening all the time. Now this is second semester this still happening. I was just told to go different offices to check this but nothing worked out. We don’t know if this is indeed how it works at the loans board,” he reveals.

He says, he was told to go to the accounts officer who told him that the half of his amount has been deposited into the account and he should go and withdraw.

” I was told by the laison Officer to go to the accounts officer. While there, the accounts officer told me that the half of my loan amount has been deposited into my account. I had questions in my head, why only half?, does this happen with the loans board?,” He says.

The Accounts Officer also told him to go the Dean of Students where he was told for the two (Dean of Students and Accounts Officer) to discuss his matter.

There after, he was asked what if may be given the half of his tuition fee.

To dig deeper into the matter, we tried to talk to the Dean of Students at the institution Davies Mweta who refused this to be happening at the institution.

“I don’t know and in my view, according to the manner in which loans board grants loans.It’s not possible to go to another person, no matter what,” said Mweta.

MUST Communications Manager, James Mphande also refuted concerned student claims.

“This cannot be true because of the way such loans are managed,” said Mphande.

He then referred us to the Laons Board Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Prince Phwetekere.

Upon queried, Phwetekere said the matter has to be done with the University and the Students, saying for them, they just disburse the tuition funds into the University account and it is the institution that further allocates the amount into the students accounts.

Phwetekere disclosed that only upkeep allowances are those that are directly deposited into the students accounts by the board.

The concerned students have however vowed to engage the country’s leadership on the matter for intervention.