The Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) has declared that it will disburse the first loans for first-year students in October.
Helb CEO Charles Ringera confirmed that 10,000 students sponsored under the programme have already received their first disbursement.
Ringera added that the remaining students are to receive the loans by mid-October.
“The first-time applicants will have received their allocation by October that will help them in paying for their first semester,” Ringera said.
According to Ringera, they have so far received 85,000 applications, which is close to 60 per cent of the students who qualified for university.
“Each day we receive an average of 200 applications, and we expect the number to be higher than that by the end of the application window.”
Despite the turnout this year, Helb has maintained that it can only fund 75,000 students as its current budget stands at Sh3.2 billion.
With the current statistics, 63,073 students selected to join university this month, under government sponsorships, will miss out on the loans.
Ringera further noted that the beneficiaries will get about Shs 37,000, a decrease compared to the previous allocations of Shs 45,000.
“Our budget allocation was cut by Shs 1billion this year, from Shs 16.8 billion in the previous year to Shs 15.8 billion, and this has affected the provision of loans.”
By Everlyne Bosibori
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