GOVERNMENT is near to finalising an agreement to increase the number of grants to needy tertiary students, through the Students’ Loan Bureau (SLB), to be financed through a concessionary loan from the PetroCaribe Fund.

Finance Minister Omar Davies, who made the announcement in opening the budget debate in Parliament, said the number of beneficiaries from the grant should increase from 2,290 in the 2006/7 academic year by 1,310, to 3,600 students for 2007/8.

The grant to students last year cost the government $100 million, and, according to Davies, an additional $60 million would be required to finance the increase in the number of grant beneficiaries.

Last academic year, also, the SLB made loans totaling more than $815 million to 6,650 students, mostly of the University of the West Indies and the University of Technology.

In the meantime, Davies said funds have been provided to add another 15,500 people to the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH) which presently provides benefits 236,000 persons, bringing the total persons covered to 252,000.

The mister said during the new fiscal year a “Welfare to Work” dimension would be added to the programme to channel household members benefiting from PATH into training and employment. He added that PATH beneficiaries “assessed as being capable of operating their own businesses”, would be given grants to establish small businesses under the administration’s Rehabilitation Grants Programme.