ELIGIBLE applicants for higher education loans during the 2025/26 academic year can file demands from June 15 to August 31, with 252,773 students expected to benefit from the facility.

Prof. Carolyne Nombo, the Education, Science and Technology permanent secretary, made this remark at the launch of official guidelines for loan and grant applications in the new application season here yesterday. A total of 88,320 beneficiaries will be first-year students at diploma, undergraduate degrees or those enrolling for the postgraduate diploma in legal practice or degree, along with beneficiaries of the Samia scholarships, she said.

Another batch of 164,453 students already pursuing different programmes are expected to receive loans, she said, during the same academic year. Loan and grant application guidelines for all categories are available on the websites of the ministry and the Higher Education Students’ Loans Board (HESLB), she said.

Students, parents and guardians need to carefully read instructions provided in the next 10 days before starting an application process, she said, noting that submitting hard copy documents to the board is no longer relevant, with online application being available.

Applicants need to have a bank account to facilitate payments while at university, and to provide a registered and active mobile number to receive communication from the board regarding their applications, she said.
“We do not want to see any eligible student in need miss out on a loan due to incomplete or incorrect applications. I urge all applicants to adhere to the official application period from 15 June to 31 August 2025,” she stressed.

She reiterated the government’s commitment to higher education over the past four years, increasing the student loan fund from 464bn/- in 2020/21 to 787bn/- in 2024/25.
Approved funds for the new academic year starting October 2025 stand at 916.7bn/-, while the presidential scholarship will cover 3,186 undergraduate students and 80 postgraduate students, for a total disbursement of 16.8bn/-, with 18,000 students registered for diploma-level training allocated 64bn/-o in scholarship funds, she added.