HESLB vows to pay out all loans in second phase

HESLB executive director Abdul-Razaq Badru

What you need to know:

  • Second disbursement of loans to be done before universities open next month, Board reassures students

Dar es Salaam. The Higher Education Students Loans Board (HESLB) has assured all loan beneficiaries that they will receive their allocations before universities open next month.

At a press conference in Dar es salaam yesterday, HESLB executive director Abdul-Razaq Badru revealed that the board had already issued loans amounting to Sh88.36 billion to at least 25,532 first-year students for the 2018/19 academic year.

There are 41,000 first-year students who successfully applied for the loans. According to Mr Badru, those who haven’t received their loans would get them in the second disbursement to be done before universities open.

“The remaining first-year students who have qualified for loans will receive their allocations in the second round; they will all be enrolled at recognised universities,” he said.

The government allocated a total of Sh427.5 billion for new and continuing students for 2018/19, Mr Badru said.

The HESLB boss also announced that the appeal window for those who were not on the list of successful applicants would be open between November 1 and 15, this year.He also noted that the board had managed to increase the amount collected in loan repayments from Sh2 billion per month in the previous three years to Sh16 billion per month last year.

HESLB director of loan allocation and disbursement Veronica Nyahende said the board would also soon start issuing loans to continuing university students.

But she quickly noted that the loans would be disbursed only continuing students whose academic performance information was submitted to the board by their universities.

“To date, at least 10 universities are yet to submit this information; thus, their students will not receive loans as long as they don’t comply,” she said.