Dionne Rose, Staff Reporter
PLANS BY the Student's Loan Bureau (SLB) to build a $360 million office have been criticised by Opposition Spokesman on Finance, Audley Shaw.
"Nominally, we can say that the land and building at the Student's Loan Bureau that they plan to build is $400 million, when there are thousands of square feet of empty buildings downtown that needs to be filled right now," Mr. Shaw said.
The Opposition spokesman, who was making his presentation in the Budget Debate on Tuesday, said this was not a practical move.
"We have too many poor children not able to get higher education because of lack of funding. Too many indebted students leaving the universities can't get jobs, but they jump up to put their photographs in the newspapers to advertise them like they are common criminals, (this is) wrong!" he said.
RECOMMENDS SCRAPPING PLAN
In the meantime, Mr. Shaw has recommended that this plan be scrapped, and that instead the Government should further reduce the interest rates to students to single digits.
Just last week, Finance Minister Dr. Omar Davis announced that effective September 1, interest rates on current loans from the SLB would be slashed from 16 per cent to 12 per cent.
"Mr. Speaker, I recommend that we scrap this latest monument to extravagance and reduce the interest rate to students to single-digit interest rate at nine per cent or less," he said to loud applause from his colleagues.
Mr. Shaw argued that the interest rate now being charged by the SLB was still too high.
"A well-run business struggles to survive at an interest rate of 12 per cent, how do we expect our children to survive?" he asked.
He said that, each year, thousands of students leave the universities and are unable to find suitable jobs to meet their obligations and in the end are forced to migrate.
