WILLEMSTAD – The Curaçao government has decided to forgive approximately XCG 3 million in outstanding student-loan debt after concluding that years of inadequate collection efforts and the practice of charging interest on accumulated interest caused debts to grow disproportionately.
The amount consists of only XCG 723,959 in principal but more than XCG 2.276 million in accumulated interest, according to the June 2026 Financial Management Report.
The government says the students involved had fulfilled their payment obligations for several years, distinguishing them from a much larger group of borrowers whose debts eventually became legally time-barred.
An analysis found that the unusually large interest component was partly caused by the government’s failure in previous years to make systematic efforts to collect outstanding balances on time.
The report also acknowledges that the collection practice of charging interest on interest caused the interest portion of many loans to become disproportionately large compared with the original principal.
Against that background, the ministers of Education, Science, Culture and Sports and Finance decided that the remaining XCG 3 million claim should be completely forgiven. The government says the measure will also allow its financial administration to be cleaned up and the student-loan position to be presented accurately in the annual accounts.
At the time covered by the report, a draft ministerial decree had been prepared to implement the decision.
The XCG 3 million comes on top of a much larger loss involving old student loans. Claims totaling XCG 44.8 million had already become legally time-barred and were written off at the end of 2024.
The student-loan problems were previously disclosed in government financial reporting, but the June report provides further confirmation of how the issue is being handled as part of efforts to clean up Curaçao’s balance sheet. The matter was also reported publicly earlier this year.