The Minister of State for Higher Education, John Chrysostom Muyingo has officially released the new list of 625 students to make the ninth (9th) cohort of students Loan Scheme beneficiaries for academic year 2022/2023, which brings to 13,405, the total number of students who have benefited from the programme.
“With the government sponsorship scheme only able to support over 10,000 learners on both Diploma and Degree programs, the loan scheme was introduced to enable our most needy students to acess funding under a loan arrangement and create a sustainable funding model,” Muyingo said in a statement.
The loan scheme was inaugurated by President Museveni during the 2011 elections through the presidential manifesto following the success of the initial universal education initiatives which brought thousands of learners to education cycle.
The Minister applauded the NRM government for the continued innovation and programs that uplift the people. He has also urged the female students to apply for support under the scheme, despite the low number of applicants from them. “We need to work towards having an equal number of ladies and gentlemen benefiting from the scheme.”
Dr. Charles Wana-Etyem, the Chairperson of Governance on the Higher Education Students’ Financing Board indicate that they have already have 3,089 applications in the current year but have received 6,256 applicants for the next academic.
“Of the 3,089 received applications, 2,417 (78%) were eligible for the Scheme. Of these 1,854 (77%) are male while 563 (23%) are female,” Wana-Etyem said.
Mr Wana-Etyem, the former Makerere University Council chairperson was named as the chair early this month the head of the board for the next four years.