651 students secure loans for 2024/2025 academic year at Kwame Nkrumah, Palabana universities

The Higher Education Loans and Scholarships Board (HELSB) has awarded student loans to 651 first-year students for the 2024/2025 academic year.

This included 488 students at Kwame Nkrumah University and 163 students at Palabana University.

HELSB Manager of Corporate Communications and Customer Services, Chiselwa Kawanda, stated that the board received 1,194 applications for sponsorship at Kwame Nkrumah University.

Of these, 1,068 applicants were deemed eligible, while 121 were found ineligible.

In a statement issued in Lusaka on Wednesday, Kawanda highlighted that 11 students with disabilities applied for loans, including four males and seven females, all of whom were awarded sponsorship.

For Palabana University, HELSB received 201 applications, with 163 applicants meeting the eligibility criteria and 38 not qualifying for sponsorship. Kawanda noted that no applications were received from students with disabilities for Palabana University this academic year.

She explained that reasons for ineligibility at both universities included incomplete applications, applicants who completed Grade 12 before 2020 and failure to attach the required documents.

Kawanda also disclosed that the Russian Federation had increased the number of scholarships available to Zambian students from 135 to 160 across various fields of study.

This was confirmed during a meeting between HELSB Board Chairperson, Geoffrey Samukonga, and the Deputy Director for International Cooperation, Sokolov Stepan Aleksandrovich, in Moscow, Russia.

Samukonga’s visit to Russia aimed to strengthen and renew the long-standing bilateral relationship regarding scholarships, which had existed since 1965.

He emphasized the need to review the existing Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to align it with the current changing environment.

“This is 59 years of unbroken cooperation, and we don’t take it for granted,” Samukonga stressed.

During the visit, Samukonga also raised concerns that required urgent attention, such as Zambian students being expelled from Russian universities due to visa renewal issues, poor academic performance, language barriers, lengthy registration processes after their language year, and high medical fees.

Samukonga was accompanied by Board members Tamala Namakobo and Monde Kanyanga, as well as HELSB staff members, including Deputy Director for Credit and Scholarships Derrick Chisanga, Acting Manager for Scholarships Edith Samboko, and Senior Scholarships Officer Timothy Chopwatanga.

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