Through unique partnerships with universities, colleges, corporates and government, MANATI offers funding that make further studies possible for the vast majority of students who would otherwise be unable to afford or secure the necessary funding.
Careers Portal recently had a chat with MANATI's co-founder and CEO, Riaan Jonck to learn more about MANATI and find out is it a student loan or is it a bursary?
Is MANATI a bursary or a student loan?
MANATI provides student loans at low-interest rates to students. This means that students will have to repay the loan.
Riaan Jonck, MANATI's CEO and Co-founder, explains:
The way our model works is slightly different from the banking model where the student and the mom and dad or someone's got to pay the interest on a monthly basis. Our repayment starts capital and interest from the beginning but what we do to make it more affordable is we would spread.
This means that they make the repayment term double the study period so for example, if it's a 12 month programme, they would make the loan to be over a 24 month period or 24, would be 48 and so on. This makes it more affordable.
"A successful financial model is where there's equity on a monthly basis. Someone's got to pay something on a monthly basis because they will make sure that that student gets engaged with the coursework, goes to college, studies and there's a very strong correlation between academics and efficacy," says Jonck.
When looking at who to fund, MANATI looks at the qualification the student wants to study and the probability of finding work. Jonck explains:
We don't want to fund someone that would go into a qualification that they never just never going to get a work because we would be in debt with them and and they wouldn't be able to repay.
MANATI makes sure that they fund something that's got a high probability of getting employment, with them saying, "anything that will get the student a good decent well earning job in the field that you see is studying in".
MANATI's model is one where these students with no credit record could be funded. They would then look joint household income, not just the parents.
Jonck admits that giving student loans to students with no credit record is a risk but explains that looking at the household income as a whole means that the risk is shared, and the academic institution shares this risk as well.
However, not only will students be able to access an education but the economy and workforce will also gain from it.
"We are contributing to the fabric of the socio-economic fabric of this South African society," says Jonck.
