The Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) has cautioned loan applicants to avoid falling for scams that often emerge on April 1 for April Fools' Day.
In a notice on Tuesday, the loans board urged prospective beneficiaries to be on the lookout for too-good-to-be-true loan offers and reminded them to "Stay sharp, stay scam-free."
"It's April 1st, and scammers love it! Watch out for fake HELB pages prowling out there and those too-good-to-be-true offers; always verify before you click," HELB warned.
"Remember, HELB services are FREE, and we only communicate via official channels. Stay sharp; don't get played!"
This warning comes at a critical time. Over the weekend, Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba announced that the HELB portal would open immediately to allow for appeals.
While speaking at Nyabururu National School on Sunday, Ogamba announced that the reopening of the portal would allow first and second-year university students to file their appeals.
According to the CS, the students would be able to complete this process using the newly developed students' centre model.
"I wish to announce that the Higher Education Loans Board and the University Fund will immediately open their portal to allow first and second-year students wishing to make appeals for loans and scholarships under the students' centre model to do so," Ogamba stated.
The announcement came about two months after the Ministry of Education disbursed Ksh3.2 billion in loans for the first and second-year students, following nationwide unrest.
A day before, students had taken to the streets to protest the new university funding model, which they termed discriminatory.
For months, the students had raised concerns over the criteria for loan allocation, which considered the socio-economic status of households. Students would be categorised into clusters based on this assessment, but many highlighted that they had been placed in the wrong class.
Although the High Court eventually ruled against the new funding model, the case is still in the Court of Appeal, and the Education CS has insisted that it will continue to implement it until a determination is made.
