Govt gives loans to more needy university students

The government has released the second batch of this year’s university loan scheme beneficiaries. 
According to the list that was released yesterday at the Uganda Media Centre, out of the 708 applications from northern Uganda, 370 succeeded.

In the central region, 272 were awarded out of the 909 applicants, western (579 got out of 2,108), and eastern (309 got out of 1,148).

The government has awarded a total of 1,530 students study loans this academic year out of  4,873 applicants.

A total of 920 were awarded loans in the first lot which was released in January while 610 have been awarded in the second batch released yesterday.

The executive director of the Higher Education Students Financing Board (HESFB), Mr Michael Wanyama, yesterday said one of their objectives was to ensure regional balance. 

“In 2019, the Board approved affirmative action for the Greater Northern Region owing to the fewer number of applicants that were being received,” Mr Wanyama said.

“I am also happy to report that generally northern Uganda was deliberately considered under affirmative action by the Board and has had a good representation of successful loan beneficiaries,” he added. 

Mr Wanyama said northern Uganda had the highest success rate. He said in the 2021/2022 Academic Year, the board received 6,023 loan applications from both lots of applications.

A total of 4,873 applicants were appraised and found eligible for support while the remaining 1,150 applications were rejected. 

Of the processed 4,873 applications, 3,528 (72.4 percent) were male while 1,345 (27.6 percent) were female.
 However, the board awarded loans to only 1,530 students, 849 (55.5 percent) male and 671 (44.5 percent) female.

The lists of beneficiaries were released in two phases after some universities, including Makerere and Kyambogo, failed to beat the deadline.