The government has extended its deferment on student loan repayments.

President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih made the announcement at a press conference held on Tuesday evening, that student loan repayment deferment has been extended till year’s end. He added that the decision was reached after discussions with the finance and higher education ministries.

In a tweet posted after the announcement, Minister of Higher Education Dr. Ibrahim Hassan said the loan deferment decision despite the current hardships shows how much the president values higher education and trainings.

The Ministry of Higher Education said that this is "a huge financial relief for the students".

The extension was made as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to have great financial impact on a number of people.

While student loan repayment was deferred last year as well, the higher education ministry had assured that interest will not be charged for the deferral period. Authorities had said that the decision to defer student loan repayments will ease things for over 4,000 individuals.

According to the ministry, over MVR 340 million was spent on higher education opportunities from November 2018 to July 2020, including a total of MVR 135.7 million to grant first-degree programmes without charge to a total of 6,155 students.