Jeff Otieno and Julienne Lauler
22 July 2008
All Kenyan students in university are now eligible for government loans.
This means self-sponsored students in both public and private universities can now apply for the loans.
The undergraduate students will apply to the Higher Education Loans Board (Helb) together with their government sponsored colleagues from Tuesday.
They all qualify for a maximum loan of Sh60,000 per annum, which was increased from the initial figure of Sh55,000. Bursaries have also been increased to Sh8,000 and will be awarded to deserving undergraduate students irrespective of the universities they are enrolled in.
The announcement is a major boost to those undertaking parallel degree courses in public institutions, along with their colleagues in private universities, who until yesterday did not qualify for the loans.
Loan application forms are available on Helb website. All applicants are required to deposit a non-refundable fee of Sh2,000 before submitting the form.
The loans will be in two categories, according to Helb chief executive officer Benjamin Cheboi. The first one will be for self-sponsored direct entry students and the second for those already enrolled in the universities.
The first category of loans is open to students who sat for the Kenya Secondary School Education (KCSE) examination in 2006 or before and have the minimum university entry requirements. They should also be direct entrants from secondary school and registered for degree programmes.
The second category applies to students already working but are experiencing financial constraints.
“They will include teachers, nurses and other professionals enrolled in self-sponsored programmes in Kenya public and private chartered universities,” Mr Cheboi said at the Helb headquarters Monday.
Increased allocation
Applicable loan repayment interest rate for continuing education students is 12 per cent per annum, or eight per cent higher than the first category.
Prospective applicants for the second category of loans must be registered students undertaking degree programmes.
Mr Cheboi said the increase in loan amount had been necessitated by the Government’s increased allocation from Sh867 million in the last financial year to Sh1.367 billion in the current one.
The board hopes to increase its loan recovery from Sh1.3 billion to Sh1.7 billion in this fiscal year.
He added that 26,720 graduates who benefited from the loan scheme had fully repaid their loans while another 57,000 beneficiaries had not yet began servicing their loans.
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