$2b credit for poor students
HCM CITY (VNS)— The Viet Nam Bank for Social Policy will set aside VND45 trillion (US$2.16 billion) for a credit programme for poor students between 2013 and 2017.
The bank said they expected overdue loans to account for less than one per cent of the total loans.
After five years of implementation of the student loan programme, more than 2.8 million disadvantaged students had received outstanding loans of VND35.8 trillion (US$1.72 billion). Of that figure, overdue loans accounted for 0.47 per cent.
The programme has been beneficial to more than 2.3 million students coming from a total of 1.9 million households .
Students of families living under and near the poverty line, families having unexpected financial difficulties due to illness, accidents and natural disasters, and orphaned students are among the beneficiaries of the programme. — VNS