Five years ago, Kazakhstan launched a mechanism that allows saving money for a child’s education in Kazakhstan or abroad, receiving bonuses simultaneously from banks and the state. How does this system work, and is it really possible to save for a child’s university education with its help? Let's figure it out using the example of the partner material — NurBank.
1. How does the education deposit work?
The AQYL deposit can be opened by a Kazakhstan citizen in their name or their child’s name. To open a deposit, only two documents are needed — your personal identification and the child’s birth certificate. The minimum contribution to the deposit is 3 minimum calculation indices (this year 1 MCI equals 2405 tenge, from January next year it will be 2525 tenge). The deposit can be replenished monthly, for example. Also, the deposit will be capitalized monthly (interest is accrued on it). The interest consists of two parts — a bank bonus and a state bonus.
2. What bonuses do the bank and the state provide?
The bank pays a base rate on the deposit — 10% (the annual effective rate is 10.5%), and the state adds 5% — meanwhile, the interest is accrued on both the money saved by the depositor and the bank interest. The state interest can be 7% for several categories of depositors — orphans, children left without parental care, disabled children, and children from large or low-income families.
3. What are the advantages of the education deposit?
The deposit has several advantages. One of the main ones is the high rate — it can reach up to 17%, making the AQYL deposit the most profitable in Kazakhstan. The funds in the deposit cannot be seized. Additionally, such savings discipline the depositor and teach long-term planning. One of the substantial advantages is that when entering a university, parents will not have to quickly accumulate a large sum for education — it will already be saved.
4. Is the deposit covered by the deposit insurance system?
Yes, the AQYL deposit is included in the deposit insurance system and a deposit up to 10 million tenge is fully protected.
5. How can I withdraw money from the deposit?
Partial withdrawal of funds from the deposit is not possible during the entire deposit period (at NurBank, the deposit term can be three years and five years) except in cases where the depositor wants to transfer part of the funds for education to an educational organization. If you decide to withdraw money from the deposit and spend it on purposes other than the child’s education, the state bonus will be deducted from the accumulated sum.
6. What if my child gets a scholarship for education?
If your child receives a scholarship for education, you can transfer the deposit to another child’s name, or continue saving for education at another university, for example. Or, you can withdraw the accumulated amount while retaining the bank's interest, but without retaining the state bonus, since the amount will not be directed toward an educational institution.
7. Is it really possible to save for university education with this deposit?
If we take the average cost of one year of university education at 1 million tenge, and therefore 4 million tenge for the entire education period, this amount can be saved in, for example, 10 years — that is, by opening a deposit when the child starts school. You will need to deposit 15 thousand tenge monthly into the deposit during this time (i.e., you will deposit 1.8 million tenge over the entire period), the rest (more than 2.3 million tenge) will be composed of bank and state bonuses. The same amount can be saved in just over 6 years if you deposit 30 thousand tenge into the deposit monthly. And, accordingly, even faster if the amount of monthly replenishment is more. So even if your child is currently studying in middle school and not much time is left before they finish school, it is quite realistic to save money for their university education with the help of the AQYL deposit — you will need to make calculations and deposit funds into the deposit in a disciplined manner.