HELB loan amount may be reduced, says boss

The Higher Education Loans Board Chief Executive, Charles Ringera has stated that the board may have to reduce the loan amounts awarded to university students. The maximum loan may be reduced from Kshs. 60,000 to Kshs. 35,000.

This, he says is due to an increased number of students who will be admitted to university despite a constant allocation of funds by the National treasury. To ensure eligible applicants benefit, he says the loan amount has to be adjusted appropriately.

“Since there is an increase in the number of students joining institutions of higher learning, we expect more eligible students to apply for loans. There shall be a crisis as we were allocated Sh5.6 billion against a budget of Sh8.8 billion.

‘‘Unless we get additional money, we will be forced to make adjustments on what we have to enable more students to benefit from the kitty.

“The given amount is only enough to sponsor continuing students who use up Sh5.5 billion per year, meaning we will need more money for students joining the scheme as from September,” he said.

Mr Ringera said the Sh5.6 billion allocation in the Budget Estimates include Sh2.4 billion that HELB recovered from past beneficiaries, meaning the actual allocation from the Treasury was Sh3.34 billion, equal to last year's allocation.

Although HELB expects to recover Sh3.3 billion from beneficiaries this year, he said this could not be relied on as students will have commenced studies with only a quarter of the amount collected..

Meanwhile, the Sh400 million set aside this year by Helb to benefit Technical and Vocational Education Training institutions is lying idle as the students have failed to apply.

The special programme allows each student to access between Sh20,000 and Sh30,000 loan and Sh8,000 to Sh15,000 bursaries, with the neediest getting the highest amount.

Institution managers have said lack of awareness is hindering students from applying.