THE Higher Education Student Loans Board (HESLB) has insisted that only qualified applicants will secure the financial aid.
Opening the board’s seminar here on Tuesday, Assistant Director in charge of Higher Learning at the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Dr Evaristo Mtitu noted that even though higher education loan was a right of every Tanzanian, only qualified candidates will be given first priority.
Dr Mtitu at the same time challenged the Tanzania Higher Learning Institutions Students’ Organization (TAHLISO) to furnish HELSB with right details of applicants eyeing the loans.
“It is high time we put the blame game between the two entities to bed and avoid the unnecessary complaints that have marred the exercise,” he said.
Dr Mtitu appealed to TAHLISO to ensure that higher learning institutions don’t avail the board with false information, purportedly to secure the loans.
“Not everyone will be disbursed with the financial aid, only those who meet the prerequisites would be considered,” he insisted.
Early last month, the education ministry moved to assess varsity student loan issuance process.
Such a move seeks to ensure that there’s an improvement in the exercise of lending by following the criteria announced in order to reduce or completely eliminate the complaints that have been emerging.
HESLB’s Director of Planning and Credit, Veronica Nyahende on her part said the board was currently improving the loan issuance exercise, disclosing that it had enrolled beneficiary students into its digital credit payment system that will allow them to receive payments within 24 hours.
According to Dr Nyahende, the board will continue addressing the complaints that have for years marred loan issuance exercise in the country.
HELSB is a corporate body established under Act number 9 of 2004 with the objective of assisting needy and eligible Tanzania students to access loans and grants for higher education.
Some of its mandates include assisting, on a loan basis, needy students who secure admission in accredited higher learning institutions, but who have no economic power to pay for the costs of their education.
