Student loans board extends application period for 10 more days
What you need to know:
For the academic year 2020/21, the government has allocated Sh464 billion to benefit 145,000 students of higher education institutions with 54,000 of the total being the first year students.
Dar es Salaam. The Higher Education Students Loans Board (Heslb) has extended the loan application period from September 1, to September 10 to allow students to tender in their loan application for the 2020/21 academic year..
Speaking to journalists on Monday 31, August in Dar es Salaam, Heslb executive director, Abdul-Razaq Badru said it was after receiving requests and suggestions from beneficiaries and education stakeholders that they saw it fit to extend the period.
“We officially started receiving loan applications on July 21, 2020 and the deadline should have been today August 31, 2020. Until today at 9am, we have received a total of 85,921 applications. Of these, 71,888 applications (84 percent) have been submitted in full with correct attachments,” explained Mr Badru.
“Another 14,033 applications (16 percent) are in various stages and need to be completed by the applicants,” he added.
For the academic year 2020/21, the government has allocated Sh464 billion to benefit 145,000 students of higher education institutions with 54,000 of the total being the first year students.
Given the challenges faced by some students when applying for loans, especially mistakes that occur and lead to qualified students missing out on loan opportunities, Heslb said it was increasingly coordinating education programs on how to apply for loans correctly for its beneficiaries.
“Already these programs have been implemented in 14 regions of mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar and in 18 JKT Camps which have many young people who sat their Form Six exams in 2020,” said Badru.
In order to ensure that needy students get loans by avoiding mistakes, the board has begun the process of integrating with the Registration, Insolvency and Trusteeship Agency (Rita) to improve the exercise.
“We are working with Heslb because we’re involved in verifying applicants’ certificates,” said Rita’s marketing and communications manager, Josephat Kimaro.
“We want to avoid some challenges and students should seek verification of their details on time, to avoid missing out loans,” he said.
