The government has released 31bn/- to the Higher Education Students Loans Board (HESLB) accounts for immediate disbursement to students.

Board’s Assistant Director of Information, Education and Communications, Mr Cosmas Mwaisobwa

By ROSE THUMANI

The board’s Assistant Director of Information, Education and Communications, Mr Cosmas Mwaisobwa, told the ‘Daily News’ that disbursement of the loans began yesterday. “The government has released the funds and we have started processing the payments,” Mr Mwaisobwa said yesterday.

Last week, students from Mwalimu Nyerere Memorial Academy, College of Business Education (CBE) and St John’s University, Dar es Salaam Campus, thronged the board’s offices, pressing for the payments.

The students, who had to be removed from the premises by police, were told that the account was exhausted. The government later stated that it had no information that the board’s accounts had run out of money for disbursing loans for the fourth quarter.

Mr Mwaisobwa yesterday said the funds will cater for the fourth quarter, going into meals and accommodation expenses. “We normally carry out payments for meals and accommodation in four quarters and this payment is the fourth quarter,” he explained.

He said students at the Ardhi University, University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) and the Institute of Finance Management (IFM) had already been paid. It was only students from Mwalimu Nyerere Memorial Academy, College of Business Education (CBE) and St John’s University, Dar es Salaam Campus who had not received their fourth quarter payment.

Source: Tanzania Daily News