Varsity Students Receive Ksh 7.6 Billion Loans From HELB

The Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) has given 7.6 billion shillings loans to University students.

Helb said the students can now send their applications even as their fate to return back to schools is unknown after Covid-19 disrupted learning in all institutions in the country.

Helb Chief executive Charles Ringera said the loans will benefit about 196,613 continuing students who are admitted to both public and private institutions.

“The government budget to support students in universities and colleges stand at Sh11.2 billion and the balance will be funded from loan recoveries,” Mr. Ringera said.

For the subsequent applications, students will no longer send hard copy documents physically at the Helb offices but they will be required to use a Helb app.

“Subsequent loan application is now going to be done seamlessly on the Helb mobile app, therefore, no need to submit physical hard copy documents at our offices, ” he added.

The loan app is currently on Google Play Store for free and is only available to Safaricom users as it will deduct money from your Mpesa to verify your account.

The Mpesa registration names should match with the names you use to register for helb otherwise your account will not be verified. You will also be asked to pay one shilling to pay bill number 200800 for verification.

iPhone and Windows Users can dial *642# to access the Helb services. The board said it is working on an iOS which will be available soon.

In the meantime, students set to join universities in September have been allocated 4.7 billion shillings of the helb loans. Mr. Ringera said the money will support 110,250 out of 125,000 who qualified to join the institutions.

The selection of first-year students set to join tertiary institutions has been scheduled for this week.

READ: 65% Of Kenyan Borrowers To Default Loans This Year, KBA