GITEGA January 17th (ABP) – The college of provincial representatives of the Foundation for the Housing of Education Personnel (FLE) met on Saturday January 6, 2024, in Gitega (central Burundi), to guide activities of the said Foundation and adopt the amendments to its statute, as proposed by the Bank of the Republic of Burundi (BRB) in the process of approving teachers’ microfinance called “Front for teachers’ housing (FLE Microfinance)”.
The president of the Board of Directors of the FLE, Mr. Victor Ndabaniwe, indicated that in addition to the project to set up microfinance which will grant housing credits to teachers, the foundation will also take care of other different activities, in particular the continuation of talks with the government on the acquisition of new plots of land to be granted to teachers, the search for potential donors and partnerships with other foundations, the search for exemptions for construction materials for the houses of the Education personnel, social assistance, etc.
Mr. Ndabaniwe further noted that the Microfinance-Teachers’ Cooperative has already been approved by ANACOOP (National Agency for the Promotion and Regulation of Cooperative Societies in Burundi) and will take care of financial intermediation activities.
The representative of the Minister of National Education and Scientific Research, Mr. Serges Ndereyimana, reiterated the ministry’s unwavering support for any activity aimed at improving the living and working conditions of teachers, including housing. He also indicated that no teacher should be excluded from the FLE Microfinance in creation and that no teachers’ union should be excluded from the Foundation for the housing of teaching staff.
The Chairman of the Board of Directors of FLE Microfinance, Mr. Liboire Bigirimana, at the same time spokesperson for the Ministry of National Education and Scientific Research, indicated that a period of 10 months has just passed without that credits be granted to teachers whose credit requests have been submitted to the FLE. He pointed out that those responsible for FLE had to comply with the instructions of the BRB which required the Foundation to migrate to microfinance dedicated to teachers.
Mr. Bigirimana reassured the teachers, specifying that they are working to obtain authorization from the BRB and so that FLE Microfinance can be operational legally. “It’s a question of patience. We are almost at the stage of finalizing the file in order to provide credits to teachers,” reassured Mr. Bigirimana.
Based on the complaints of affiliates about that migration of the Foundation towards Microfinance, Mr. Bigirimana has, in fact, reassured all the members of the Foundation, meaning that their savings exist and that no one has the right to steal them. He therefore called on teachers to join massively in that Microfinance because, he stressed, the latter will take all the necessary measures to safeguard the various savings of the affiliates.