By Chisomo Phiri
A total of 28,883 needy students from both the Public and Private Universities have been provisionally approved by the Higher Education Students Loans and Grants Board (HESLGB) to access academic loans in the 2024-2025 academic calendar.
Speaking at a press briefing in Mangochi, Chairperson for the Loans and Grants Disbursement Committee, Henry Chingaipe, said the approved list represents 96.9 percent of the total applicants representing a 10.8 percent increase compared to the previous calendar.
According to Chingaipe, the Loans board has budgeted K29.4 billion for this academic year.
He said out of the K29.4 billion, Government has made available K24 billion in the current National budget and another K4 billion will be added during the midyear budget review sitting of parliament.
Chingaipe said the rest of the funds are being sourced from other sources including the World Bank funded Skills for Vibrant Economy (SAVE) project.
HESLGB was established by an Act of Parliament of 2015 with the mandate to disburse loans to needy students and recover mature loans from the former beneficiaries.
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