THE Higher Education Students' Loans Board (HESLB) has closed seven-day appeal window, whereby at least 32,777 students have submitted their appeals on various concerns in loan allocations to fund their next academic year studies.

The appeal window which was last Sunday was open for seven days aimed to allow students to challenge their loan allocations for the academic year 2022/2023.

According to HESLB Director General, Mr Abdul-Razaq Badru, the appeal window involved first year and continuing students left out of this year's loan allocations as well as those, who are not satisfied with what they received.

"The decision of the appeals will be released on November 26th this year (Saturday) and appellants will receive the final results, which will be sent direct to their email accounts they used to apply for loans known as Student's Individual Permanent Account (SIPA)," he told members of the press in Dar es Salaam yesterday.

Such development comes a few days after the government instructed colleges to admit all 28,000 students, who have qualified to secure loans from HESLB as they finalise procedures for issuing the money.

He added that a total of 166,438 students have been so far allocated with loans amounting to 424.5bn/-, among whom, 68,460 are first years joining higher education for the first time, while 97,978 are continuing students.

"Already HESLB has paid the loan money for the first quarter of the 2022/23 academic year to allow students to continue with their studies as the studies begin. May I advise those students with academic issues to communicate with relevant institutions as HESLB is only concerned with loans not academic issues," the Director General advised.

"Once a student spots allocation via the board's Student's Individual Permanent Account (Sipa), he/she should see a loan officer at his/her college or university to present his/her bank information in order to secure the money," he noted.

He said the government has disbursed an additional 84bn/- to finance qualified applicants, after missing loans in previous the application.

The additional amount means that the HESLB will spend a total of 654bn/- in this financial year (2022/23), instead of 570bn/- previously announced.

The latest development comes as a great relief to a total of 28,000 qualified students, who had missed the loans through HESLB. They have now been bailed out by the government that has increased the loan funds.

The money will benefit at least 177,000 loan applicants at various higher-learning institutions including first-year students