Ksh 55.6 Million Owed by Deceased HELB Recipients Cancelled

The Higher Educations Loans Board (HELB) has said that it has cancelled 55.6 million shillings in debt owed by recipients who have since passed on.

In its latest recovery mission of defaulters, the loans board has established that 653 beneficiaries of the loan have died.

HELB recently said there are 78,328 loan defaulters who are apparently holding 7.7 billion shillings, making it hard for the board to avail the loans to needy students.

According to Business Daily, of the 653 deceased recipients of the loan offered by HELB, 110 recipients were killed during the Garissa University terror attack in 2015, which killed a total of 147 people.

Earlier this month, HELB announced that over 113,953 eligible students risk dropping out of school as they will not access loans in their remaining current academic year.

HELB has admitted that all its past attempts to recover money from past beneficiaries who have either failed to commit to a process of repaying the loans or have deceased.

The loans board has used several tactics to try and force defaulters into paying up the loan, such as was the case when in 2019, it threatened to publish names and pictures of defaulters.

Other tactics used by HELB were the threat to list defaulters on the Credit Reference Bureau (CRB) and have defaulters arrested.

Nonetheless, all these tactics have proved futile as more beneficiaries continue to join the defaulters club.

HELB beneficiaries are given up to one year after completion of school to start servicing the loan but with the current economic crises of high youth unemployment and job cuts, the default rate is expected to grow.

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