Scholarships Board says over 600 students awarded additional govt loans

The Higher Education Loans and Scholarships Board (HELSB) has awarded additional loans to 695 first year students at the University of Zambia (UNZA) and 481 at Copperbelt University (CBU) for the 2021/2022 academic year.

HELSB Senior Corporate Communications Officer, Chiselwa Kawanda, said the award of the additional student loans has been made possible from the other sources and after a number of consultations with the Ministry of Education on how the funds should be utilised.

Kawanda in a statement issued in Lusaka on Friday said the HELSB Board of Directors also made considerations from applicants who requested for change of sponsorship from self to HELSB.

She said a total of 289 post first applicants at the University of Zambia and at Copperbelt University have been considered for student loans.

Kawanda said for the University of Zambia 275 have been considered and 14 at the Copperbelt University.

“Applications for student loan funding level upgrade were also considered and 24 students at University of Zambia have been considered while 34 are from Copperbelt University,” he said.

Kawanda said during the window for student loan applications for the 2022/ 2023 academic year at the University of Zambia, Management received a total of 4,515 applications by the closing date October 28, 2022.

She said from the applications received, 4,075 of these eligible applicants, 2,000 applicants were awarded student loans while 2,075 students were not awarded because of budget limitations.

“Of the 4,846 applications received 4,664 applicants were eligible 182 applicants were ineligible and of the eligible 4,664, HELSB awarded 2,” she said.

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