Tourism and Hospitality Programmes Added to the Student Loan Scheme

The Higher Education Students Financing Board (HESFB) during the 30th meeting held on March 31 approved Tourism and Hospitality Programmes to be supported under the Students' Loan Scheme.

According to a July 12 statement, the Uganda Hotel and Tourism Training Institute in Jinja was also approved to participate in the Scheme.
 
"The Tourism and Hospitality sector has been identified by the successive National Development Plans including the current NDP3 and Vision 2040 as one of the fundamental pillars of Uganda's economy and key growth drivers with the greatest multiplier effect. In the pre-pandemic season, the sector growth had hit as much as 7.3% of GDP and 6.3% of total employment," reads the statement signed off by HESFB  Executive Director Michael Wanyama. 

Since its inception, the Board has been supporting mainly Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) programmes, except for Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) who can undertake any programme of their choice under affirmative action. 

"The Board has also been offering other humanities programmes targeting PWDs including Bachelors of Speech and Language Therapy, Bachelors of Education (Special Needs Education) and Bachelors of Teacher Education with Special Needs under affirmative action," reads the statement.
 
In the current academic year, 1530 students were taken up by the scheme. The Scheme, which was started in 2014 with only 1200 students, has so far offered loans to 12,717 students.