Pain for freshers as Helb delays cash disbursement

Pain for freshers as Helb delays cash disbursement

Pain for freshers as Helb delays cash disbursement

when will helb disburse funds to 2015/16 first years? - Helb has extended a one month loan repayment amnesty and 80 per cent waiver on all penalties for loans paid in lump sum.

Students being served at the Higher Education Loans Board (Helb) offices last year. Helb has extended a one-month loan repayment amnesty and an 80 per cent waiver on all penalties for loans paid in a lump sum. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP
By DAVID HERBLING, hdavid@ke.nationmedia.com



    The Higher Education Loans Board (Helb) has announced it will not send them any money until November.

 This may force some students to postpone their studies or forced them to seek cheap accommodation in unsafe informal settlements.

First-year students who have reported to public universities should brace themselves for a life of frugality after the Higher Education Loans Board (Helb) announced it will not send them any money until November.


    Helb to offer explanations, proof for loan denial

It is feared the wait for two months or longer may force some students to postpone their studies or to seek cheap accommodation in unsafe informal settlements.

Helb said it will close loan applications for freshers at the end of this month and, thereafter, take at least three weeks to process their requests. This means the earliest the body can disburse funds is November.

“Applications are still going on up to September 30, 2015. Thereafter, we take about three weeks to process,” Mr Ringera told the Business Daily.

For the second year in a row, Helb is delaying cash to newly students. Chief executive Charles Ringera said the loan application and disbursement cycle was “mutually agreed upon” by the agency, the deans of public universities and the central admissions body.

The higher education financier once more attributed the delay to the varying opening dates for the public-funded universities, saying this presents a logistical nightmare for the State agency.

“With varying opening dates, it becomes difficult to adopt an earlier date than the latest admission date,” he said.

But the Business Daily has determined that all but one of the 22 public universities have already admitted the 67,124 new students selected to join the institutions of higher learning.

For example, South Eastern Kenya University admitted its batch of freshers on August 24. A majority of institutions such as Kenyatta, Technical University of Mombasa, Maseno, Moi and Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology welcomed their first years between the last day of August and September 8.

The disheartening announcement to government-sponsored first-year students means that the freshers will have to pay for tuition and accommodation, among other expenses, from their own pockets as they await the Helb funding.

The loan delay will even be worse for freshmen who missed university housing as they have to source for extra funds to rent houses or hostels in the surrounding neighbourhoods.

University hostel charges range from Sh3,000 per semester while private hostels charge an average of Sh7,000 per month.

READ: Financing crisis pushes students to life in the slums

It is estimated that eight of every 10 university students admitted under what is popularly is known as “JAB” apply for financial aid from Helb.

The Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service last year replaced the Joint Admissions Board (JAB) as the entity which selects State-funded students to public universities.

With the information we provide about   when will helb disburse funds to 2015/16 first years?

, We hope you can be helped and hopefully set a precedent with you . Or also you can
see our other references are also others which are not less good about  HELB Loan Penalties, HELB Loan Interests Accrual Periods And Expected Monthly Payments of HELB Loan In Kenya


, So and we thank you for visiting.


open student loan : http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Corporate-News/Pain-for-freshers-as-Helb-delays-cash-disbursement/539550-2865986-tr60cez/index.html