Two top Ugandan banks have been implicated in the fraudulent loan scheme racket that was unearthed by Ministry of Education in conjunction with Uganda Police.
According to Ministry of Education and Uganda Police officials, the fraudsters opened two accounts in Stanbic Bank Uganda and Diamond Trust Bank on which they were directing unsuspecting students to deposit money on these accounts as application fees.
The Accounts were purportedly opened in the names of Students Education Fund Uganda (SEFU) and students were told to pay between shs. 200,000 and shs. 300,000 as as application fees.
Police questions the action by the two banks who allowed these two accounts to be opened by individuals and not Ministry of Education. Kampala Metropolitan Spokesperson Ibin Ssenkumbi said they are probing the matter and any Bank official found to have connived with the fraudsters to have the accounts opened will be made to answer.
Ministry of Education got to learn of the fraud after several students flocked their offices, demanding for the funds, saying they had already paid the required application fees.
When contacted for comment, an official from one of the banks said the account opening process had not yet been completed due to lack of sufficient documentation and that no money had been credited on the said account, as claimed by Police.
Ministry of Education denies any knowledge or dealings with the said "SEFU" company and according to the Ministry's PS, the student loan scheme has not yet been rolled out since they (Ministry) are still working on modalities through which the funds will be accessed.
The Ministry advises students to wait for official communication once all the formalities are completed.
Government announced in this year's budget that the students' loan scheme will start this financial year.
Approximately shs.5 billion was allocated for this cause in this year's budget read by Finance Minister Maria Kiwanuka and will benefit over 1,000 students initially.
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