National Bank of Pakistan in collaboration with four other major commercial banks in Pakistan is offering interest free loans for students. These interest free loans are aimed at helping students who need financial assistance to continue their education. Loans are provided to students enrolled in the disciplines of scientific, technical or professional education within Pakistan at graduation, post-graduation or PhD level.

The loan amount will cover educational fee, boarding charges and textbook expenses, but will not cover meals. Student will be required to repay the loan amount in a maximum of ten years starting for the date of loan disbursement. First loan installment will start one year after completion of education for which the loan was obtained or one year after getting first job, whichever comes earlier.

Student should already have secured admission in any of 71 approved colleges or universities (PDF, 93KB) in Sindh, Punjab, NWFP, Balochistan, Islamabad, Azad Kashmir and Northern Areas. It is is required the student should have received 70% or more marks in last public examination. There is also age restriction for applying for this interest free educational loan program.

List of approved subjects for study is:

  1. Engineering
  2. Electronics
  3. Oil Gas & Petro-Chemical Technology
  4. Agriculture
  5. Medicine
  6. Physics
  7. Chemistry
  8. Biology, Molecular Biology & Genetics
  9. Mathematics
  10. Other Natural Sciences
  11. DAWA and Islamic Jurisprudence (LL.B/LL.M Sharia)
  12. Computer Science/Information, System and Technology including hardware.
  13. Economics, Statistics and Econometrics
  14. Business Management Sciences
  15. Commerce

Application forms for this interest free student loan could be obtained from designated branches (PDF, 93KB) of National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), Habib Bank Ltd. (HBL), United Bank Ltd. (UBL), MCB Bank Ltd. (MCB) and Allied Bank Ltd. (ABL). Further details about this scheme could be found on the National Bank of Pakistan’s webpage for student loan.

Last date to submit application is February 27, 2010. Please share this news with any student who might be in need of financial help.