HELB to Partner with Telcos To Enable Mobile Repayments

The Higher Educations Loan Board (HELB) is now seeking partnerships with telecommunication companies in a bid to encourage loan defaulters to pay up.

HELB is now seeking to partner with telcos such as Safaricom, Airtel and Telkom so as to enable easy mobile repayment of loans by beneficiaries of the fund.

The new move comes as the loan default rates among beneficiaries hits a new high and new applicants risk missing out on the loan.

HELB recently said it is pursuing 78,328 loan defaulters holding 7.7 billion shillings as of December 31, despite a myriad of threats that included having their faces published in newspapers.

On top of that, the funds’ agency announced that over 100,000 students risked missing out of the all-important student loans since it was running out of funds.

The bid announced yesterday, 14^th January 2020, by the fund agency aims to increase the convenience and efficiency of repaying the loans through digitizing the process of repayment.

HELB has also said that the mobile smart payment solution will help in the disbursement of student loans, bursaries and scholarships to institutions of higher learning.

“The board invites interested telcos to submit their Expression of Interest for the provision of the mobile smart payment solution,” read the notice by HELB.

Read Also: 113,953 Students to Drop Out as HELB Reports Shortage of Funds