THE Higher Education Students’ Loans Board (HESLB) has announced the fourth phase of loan allocations totalling 27.52bn/- for the 2024/25 academic year, covering 9,068 undergraduate and diploma students.

The HESLB official website said in a statement yesterday that among the recipients, 4,400 are first-year students enrolled in various higher education institutions across the country, who take up a total of 13.74bn/- .

The fourth phase also includes 2,646 continuing undergraduate students receiving loans for the first time, a 8.37bn/- portion, it said, noting that loans worth 5.41bn/- are being handed to 2,022 first-year diploma students enrolled in priority programmes at various intermediate institutions nationwide.

HESLB is also providing 3.14bn/- in loans under the Samia scholarship grant, handed to 588 in the first phase, 11 in the second and 26 in the third phase, with first-year undergraduate beneficiaries for this academic year being enrolled in fields of science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine.

Students who applied for loans but are dissatisfied with their initially allocated amounts, or those who have not yet received allocations, are invited to submit appeals up to Sunday, November 10, it stated.

This academic year the government plans to disburse 787bn/- in loans to 250,000 students, an increase of 25,944 students from 224,056 beneficiaries in the 2023/24 academic year, it added.