Helb invites applications for 2020/21 student loans
By Irene Githinji, July 21, 2020
The Higher Education Loans Board (Helb) has invited applications for first time students in the 2020/21 financial year undergraduate programmes.
Helb said yesterday that those eligible to apply are Kenyan students admitted in Government or self-sponsored programmes in public and private universities in the country.
It also applies to universities from East African Community (EAC) that are recognised by Commission for University Education (CUE).
“Eligible students include those placed by Kenya Universities and Colleges Placement Service in local public and private universities,” read a Helb notice.
However, Helb stated that self-sponsored, parallel and Module II students studying for a bachelor’s degree only are not eligible for this loan facility.
Register and apply
Eligible students are required to register and apply for the loan from the Helb website. The closing date for applying the loan is December 2020.
Overall, the Helb annual student budget has grown from Sh4.6 billion financing 109,189 students in 2012 to Sh11.4 billion financing 248,050 students in 2017-2018.
The Exchequer funds 53 per cent of the total Helb budget while 47 per cent is from recovery.
To guarantee sustainability of HELB, the board last year urged employers to enhance loan recovery mechanisms to track over 74,000 defaulters who were holding over Sh7.2 billion as at December 31, 2018.
This intervention was expected to improve Helb’s performing loan portfolio from the then 72 per cent to more than 80 per cent by 2023.
Last week, Helb waived the Sh1,000 fee previously charged to non-loanees to acquire a compliance certificate, which came as a relief for a majority of job seekers.