Colombia announces 62 billion pesos in Icetex relief

The Colombian Ministry of National Education has announced financial relief measures totaling approximately 62 billion pesos to assist Icetex beneficiaries. The initiative aims to reduce the economic burden on more than 173,000 Colombians who utilized educational credit operations for their academic training.

The intervention consists of two primary pillars. First, approximately 52 billion pesos will be allocated to mitigate the impact of interest rates on existing loans, benefiting an estimated 170,000 higher education students who had previously lost interest rate subsidy coverage.

Second, the plan provides specific economic and institutional support for 3,827 teachers and educational directors in postgraduate training who were affected by an earthquake. For this group, which manages a debt balance of roughly 9.8 billion pesos across 11 Icetex-administered funds, the government is offering measures such as a 12-month suspension of loan payments without the accrual of new interest and the exoneration of pending interest balances.