The Higher Education Loans Board (Helb) has issued a warning that more than 113,953 students would not be able to access HELB Loans in the academic year 2019/2020.
Reports from Business Daily on Thursday, January 9, indicate that the eligible students would be locked out due to the board failing to meet its targets of collections.
This was despite strict measures adopted with a view to forcing past beneficiaries to settle what they owe to the higher educations fund.
The agency is reported to have banked on the warnings to recover Ksh4.9 billion to bolster the Ksh15.5 billion allocated for the year ending June 2020.
“If the target of Ksh4.9 billion is not achieved, a third of the 370,000 students in universities and technical and vocational education and training (TVET) colleges will not get loans for remaining part of the 2019/2020,” Helb chief executive Charles Ringera was quoted.
The publication indicated that the board missed its half-year collections target by around Ksh100 million to collect Ksh2.2 billion against the Ksh2.3 billion target.
In mid-November, the agency threatened to publish names of defaulters and their photos in local newspapers if they failed to settle their loans in time.
"Please take note the names and pictures of Helb loan beneficiaries who have defaulted repayment of the loan from 1975 to date shall be published in the leading newspapers.
"The names will be published after the expiry of 30 days from the date of this notice and thereafter legal action may ensue against each defaulter as stipulated in the HELB Act," the notice read.
Helb expressed concerns that many students could drop out of school in the 2019/2020 academic year if they failed to gain access to the loans.
The agency stated that it was still in pursuit of 78,328 loan defaulters holding close to Ksh7.7 billion as of December 31, 2019.
