Kenya’s higher education revolving fund has said it plans to disburse loans amounting to 80 million U.S. dollars to over 180,000 stud...
Kenya’s higher education revolving fund has said it plans to disburse loans amounting to 80 million U.S. dollars to over 180,000 students in the current financial year.
Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) CEO Charles Ringera told a media briefing in Nairobi that there has been a dramatic increase in the number of loan applications due to the improved transition rate from secondary school to universities.
"We have engaged consultants to help us review our laws in order to transform HELB into a Development Financial Institution so that we have more funds to disburse," Ringera said when HELB launched a student smart card aimed at improving the efficiency in the loan disbursement scheme.
HELB was founded in the 1990s to help increase the number of Kenyans with graduate qualifications.
He said once HELB becomes a development finance institution, it will be able to accept deposits from individuals who want to save towards funding university costs.
"It will also provide an avenue for HELB to accept funds from international donors and financiers," the CEO said.
He added that HELB has been having challenges of timeliness of disbursing funds due to timing differences on loan collections and conflicting university reporting calendars.
He said the mandate of HELB is to ensure that all Kenyans regardless of background have access to education in the country.
HELB also funds Kenyan students enrolled in East African Community universities.
According to Ringera, the board has to date financed over 430, 000 students at a cost of over 535 million dollars.
In addition, 96,195 past beneficiaries have completed paying back 104 million dollars.
HELB said that there loanees holding 104 million dollars who have not commenced repayments despite their loans having matured.
"This is putting pressure on government efforts to finance future generations," Ringera said.
The organization is also planning to start a programme to help track those loanees who are not repaying their loan and are either in the country or in the Diaspora.
The CEO said beginning September, all payments to students will be done on smart cards in order to ensure that funds are only used for intended purpose, adding that roughly 150,000 students who sat the secondary examinations last year are eligible to join universities and this all potential clients.