KINGSTON, Jamaica — Finance minister Audley Shaw has promised updates to the Student Loan Bureau (SLB) which will see “adequate funds being made available which will lead to SLB being able to satisfy the demand for student loans for the upcoming school year 2016/17 with approximately 98 per cent of applicants being approved.”

The updates are also to include the Pay as You Study (PAYS) loan facility, introduced by SLB to help increase the cash flow of the bureau.

Shaw’s statements came in a release outlining the minister’s charge to the new board appointees of the SLB.

In other efforts to increase cash flow, Shaw cited incentives offered to customers to clear or reduce their arrears and benefit from lower monthly payments. The minister also said that the SLB’s interest rate was very attractive at 9.5 per cent for applicants and is the lowest when compared to similar education loans in the market.

Nonetheless Shaw said that were challenges, and as such sounded a stern directive to the new board members to establish a good corporate governance framework, and to ensure that feedback channels were in place to support the operations of the SLB and so improve the overall performance.

“Some of the challenges that need urgent address are, the need for improvement of the technological infrastructure to include the implementation of a user- friendly and efficient Loans Management System (LMS) and Integrated Enterprise Management Information Systems to support SLBs expanded operations.  This is vital for the strengthening of data management and reliability, as well as enhancing the required service delivery levels to SLB’s customers,” the minister said.

Other challenges highlighted were the attainment of an optimal organization structure and staffing to support the expanded operations of SLB and the overall improvement of the operation and customer experience.  

The establishment of a succession planning process and a comprehensive review and consolidation policy and procedures along with the acquisition of expertise to aid in the revision, upgrade and consolidation and documentation of the SLB’s policies and procedures were also among some of the challenges noted by the minister.