Higher Education Loans Board releases Sh1.8b to settle students' loan requests

The Government has released Sh1.8 billion to settle students' Higher Education loan requests.

Higher Education Loans Board (Helb) Chief Executive Officer Charles Ringera said the disbursement of the money started Wednesday and will end by close of business Friday.

He said the money has so far been wired to 110,000 students from different universities and colleges.

The news comes as a sigh of relief to students who had threatened to storm Helb offices to demand immediate release of the money.

Speaking Wednesday, Ringera said the slight delay was necessitated by the early opening dates of the universities and colleges.

"Previously, colleges and universities opened by September 15. We would then process the money within a week or two. But this time, almost all the institutions were opened on September 1 and this put pressure on us," said Ringera.

He also added that very few students had requested for the 'subsequent application' prompting Helb to extend the applications deadline by another month.

"We opened the applications date in July and it was expected to end by August. However, only 96 000 students had applied and we knew many more should have applied," he said.

Ringera said the board expected applications from some 119,000 after about 33,000 graduated last year.