9,300 university students to receive loans

The Higher Education Students’ Loans and Grants Board (HESLGB) has approved loans for 9,300 students in public and private universities.

During the current fiscal year, 9,317 students will, after a vetting process, receive loans from the board.

This is according to a press statement signed by chairperson for the loans board Geoffrey Chipungu.

“The Higher Education Students’ Loans and Grants Board (HESLGB) is pleased to announce to the higher learning institutions, to students in higher learning institutions and to the general public that the board has on the day of 25th of August, 2017 provisionally approved the students’ loans for the 2017/2018 Financial Year subject to college/university vetting,” reads part of the statement.

The board advertised the loan application processes through the newspapers in the months of March and April 2017.

It received a total of 12,186 students’ loan applications from both public and private higher learning institutions across the country.

The statement says upon the completion of the screening process of the applications, 9,317 loan applications have met the loans board’s eligibility criteria and hence have been approved provisionally until the potential beneficiaries are further vetted in consultation with the universities and colleges.

The vetting is to remove those that are on scholarships, are repeating on academic grounds, have withdrawn on academic or medical grounds and found to have other sources of financing their education among other reasons.

The Malawi Government through the board has also increased its support to needy and deserving students.

The board further says all provisionally successful applicants can check their names from 1st September, 2017 through the offices of Registrars or Dean of Students in their respective higher learning institutions or through the board’s website www.heslgb.mw

Meanwhile,  the board has appealed to each university to provide feedback on the provisionally approved names to the board through the offices of Registrars or Dean of Students of each respective higher learning institution so that the final list should only have needy and deserving students that will finally access the 2017/18 students’ loans.