The government has established a $40 million loan fund for financially disadvantaged students to be drawn from all State universities.
This was revealed by Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development Minister Amon Murwira in an interview with The Herald on Monday. He said:
As Government, we have secured $40 million for access by those deserving bright, but indigent students from the State universities.
So far we are targeting those vulnerable groups, such as orphans.
We started it as a seed, but my ambition would be for the loans to be universal to every student.
However, that would need the fund to grow first. I was in a meeting with all the vice-chancellors who said the respective committees have been set up and we deliberated on the need to create foolproof selection criteria to ensure that those we are targeting benefit.
These committees will be working on the specific frameworks in the identification of deserving students, among other modalities and as the scheme grows, more students will certainly be taken on board.