KUALA LUMPUR: The National Higher Education Fund (PTPTN) will soon be launching a strategic plan to move the organisation forward, according to its chairman Datuk Wan Saiful Wan Jan.

Without disclosing an exact timeframe for the launch, he said the plan would include two main things, namely rebranding the image of PTPTN and going digital.

"First of all, we want to do a little rebranding, we want to change the community's perception of PTPTN. We want to change from being seen as a body that hands out loans, to one whose main function is the fund.

"When PTPTN is mentioned, they (the community) think of loans, so we want to change the fact that we are primarily an education fund, that also has loan facilities for those who need it," he said while appearing on Bernama TV's Ruang Bicara programme entitled 'PTPTN's Role and Challenges' here last night.

He said the second focus of the strategic plan was to digitalise the processes involved, in line with the era of information technology.

Meanwhile, he said that PTPTN had approved loan applications worth RM3.59 billion for 150,567 students last year.

Apart from that, he said PTPTN would continue to provide matching grants of up to RM10,000 to those in the B40 group who saved money under the National Education Savings Scheme (SSPN-i).

Commenting further, he said SSPN-i also provided tax relief of up to RM8,000 to those who saved money for their children, and that the tax relief facility had been extended till 2022.

-- BERNAMA