(Ecofin Agency) - The government of Tanzania plans to set up a $200 loan program to help students in high schools. The information was reported following a council of ministers held on July 21.

According to the institution, the operation called Higher Education Students' Loans Board (HESLB) will target 145,000 students (including 54,000 freshmen) in the country's universities and higher education institutions for the academic year 2020-2021.

This comes at a time when the pandemic has disrupted the Tanzanian academic year. After three months of closure to slow the spread of the virus, the authorities decided to reopen schools at the end of June.

In this difficult context, the HESLB operation aims to help Tanzanian students finance their studies. The new funds are moreover higher than the $194 million that was granted for the year 2019-2020, which had benefited 132,119 students in total. Loan applications are expected to be submitted between July 21 and August 31, 2020.

Moutiou Adjibi Nourou