HELB starts disbursing money to university students

By Peter Ochieng

The Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) has started disbursing funds to university and Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) students under the Old Higher Education Funding Model (OFM).

The disbursement is expected to cover over 175,000 undergraduate students and more than 700,000 continuing TVET students.

According to HELB Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Charles Ringera, the loans are being disbursed in accordance with the students' chosen payment methods, which include either a bank account or the HELB Mobile Wallet.

"Higher Learning Institutions, that is Universities and Colleges are advised to allow students to register as tuition fees to various institutions have also been released and should reflect in their respective bank accounts of the by October 5, 2023," said Ringera a statement.

"For first-time students applying for funding under the New Higher Education Funding Model (NFM), for both loans and scholarships, the deadline for application is October 07, 2023 as per the extension granted by Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu on September 5, 2023,” added Ringera.

The move comes a day after Multimedia University students on Tuesday protested over various issues, among them delay in disbursement of HELB funds.

Last week, Embakasi East MP Paul Ongili alias Babu Owino censored university student union leaders for failing to call for peaceful demonstrations, in the wake of delayed disbursement of HELB money.

"I want to urge all student leaders in the country, do not sleep. Student leaders, you are sleeping. You are wasting the constituents who elected you. Instead of representing them, you are misrepresenting them. You must wake up, you must come out and call for demonstrations. Let HELB not delay even by one minute. The moment HELB delays there is a lot that goes on in the lives of students.”

"Student leaders wake up. There's nothing you are doing in those offices. HELB must never delay and school fees must never increase... you must call for demonstrations as soon as possible but you must never destroy university property or any public property. Just hold peaceful demonstrations on a daily basis.”

Owino is a former University of Nairobi student leader.