Student Credit Card scheme: Number of beneficiaries has increased to 25,000

Student Credit Card scheme: Number of beneficiaries has increased to 25,000

On Sunday, Nitish Kumar, Bihar Chief Minister said that the number of beneficiaries under the Student Credit Card (SCC) scheme in the state has gone up to 25,000. “The number of beneficiaries under SCC scheme has gone up to 25,000 within three-four months of Bihar State Education Finance Corporation (BSEFC) taking up the job to disburse soft loans to students to pursue higher education,” he said. “I am happy to say that BSEFC has started functioning for past three-four months (for disbursing loans under SCC scheme). The scheme has become popular among students. I am told the number of beneficiaries under SCC scheme has gone up to 25,000 within three-four months of BSEFC starting its work,” Kumar said. The scheme was launched by the Bihar government on October 3, 2016. Earlier, the number of beneficiaries under the scheme could barely reach to 9,000 when the scheme was routed through banks, he said. Soft education loans under the SSC scheme are given to the students by the BSEFC who are willing to pursue higher education within the state or outside the state. The students can get a loan up to INR 4 lakhs at the low interest rate of 4 percent while the interest rate for the girls, specially abled and transgenders is merely 1 percent. The state’s gross enrollment is 13.4 against the national average of 24 percent, Kumar said and asserted that he intends to take this ratio to 30 percent within next few years to surpass the national average. Kumar re-iterated that the government will waive off the loans of the students who are unable to get a job after education and their families are also unable to return the money.

source https://www.brainbuxa.com/education-news/student-credit-card-scheme-number-of-beneficiaries-has-increased-to-25000-8956