The Government has decided that proof of contributions to the National Insurance Scheme will not be mandatory for graduates of the University of Guyana to benefit from the first phase of Government’s student debt write-off. 

Over thirteen thousand Guyanese graduates of the University are expected to benefit in the first phase of the student debt write-off, which will see the student loans owed by graduates being completely cleared. 

In making the initial announcement, Minister with responsibility for Finance, Dr Ashni Singh indicated that in order to qualify for the debt write-off, graduates would need to produce evidence of 156 contributions made to the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) to confirm that they worked in Guyana for three or more years after graduating from the University.  

However, at his weekly press conference today, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo said he has since held discussions with the President, and a decision has been taken that no such proof of NIS contributions is to be required. 

“It may convey the impression that if they don’t have that evidence, then they would not be eligible. So, a person maybe working, they may not have made their contributions to the NIS, a graduate, and be working three years here in Guyana or may have been unemployed or may have been unemployed but still in Guyana, not migrated, because if you migrate that is a different story. But you are still in Guyana, you might have even been unemployed, you would still be eligible for the write off. So, you don’t have to provide that evidence of 156 contributions made to the NIS,” the Vice President explained. 

Mr. Jagdeo said the Government intends to make the process easy for Guyanese to benefit from this first phase of the write off. 

“We want to make this easy for our people who have outstanding loans. We don’t want to put in conditions that will create or minimize the impact of this initiative, which we believe can help a lot of people. 

The Ministry of Finance has opened the application process on its website for the debt-write off.

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