State finally releases freshers’ Sh2.4bn Helb funds

Student loan beneficiaries at the Higher Education Loans Board office in Nairobi. PHOTO | FILE 

By NEVILLE OTUKI, notuki@ke.nationmedia.com

In Summary

• The Treasury has, in the fiscal year starting July, experienced a cash crunch due to below-target revenues and high debt payments, which have stalled essential services and projects.
• The lack of funds prompted the Helb to ask universities to allow freshmen with fees arrears to sit their end of semester exams on the promise of paying in January.

First Year university students will, at last, get their delayed funding from the Higher Education Loans Board (Helb) this week, halfway through the academic year.

The freshmen completed the first semester without support from Helb after the Treasury failed to release Sh2.4 billion for the students’ upkeep and tuition fees.

The Treasury, which has recently been battling fiscal challenges, had released only the cash for continuing students.

“We now have the full capitation from the Treasury. All successful applicants should have the money wired to their accounts by Wednesday,” Helb chief executive Charles Ringera said last Friday.

He said that 60,750 freshmen will be funded. The State-backed agency funds needy students in the range of between Sh36,000 and Sh60,000 per academic year.

Of the total loan disbursed, Sh8,000 is sent directly to the university as tuition fees and the balance to the beneficiary’s bank account in two equal tranches in the first and second semesters.

The students had been promised the cash by November, contrary to the normal arrangement where Helb has been channelling funds to students’ bank accounts in the first month of their arrival at university.

The Treasury has, in the fiscal year starting July, experienced a cash crunch due to below-target revenues and high debt payments, which have stalled essential services and projects.

READ: Freshers miss cash again as State holds Sh2.4bn Helb funds

It had allocated Sh7.5 billion to the students’ financier for the financial year but only released a portion of it for the continuing students, condemning freshers to a tough life.

The lack of funds prompted the Helb to ask universities to allow freshmen with fees arrears to sit their end of semester exams on the promise of paying in January.

Mr Ringera said that out of the 60,750 First Years to be funded, 9,000 of had issues with their application forms and had been asked to make corrections before they get the cash.

About 67,124 new students joined public universities from last September. There has been a sharp rise in enrolment of students in public universities, straining resources at the Helb whose capitation has been growing at a slower pace.

University intake increased to 67,124 last year from about 57,000 in 2014, pushing up the demand for loans.

Enrolment in public universities has increased 85 per cent over the past three years to 363,334 students.