Sigh of relief as The Higher Education Loans Board (Helb) finally disbursed loans to over 75,000 students who joined public universities in September last year.
The disbursement will go a long way in assisting students who come a humble background since most of students who count on HELB loan come from financially strained families.
Delayed disbursement was owing to cash crunch that had rocked the board The cash crunch meant thousands of bright students, most of who come from poor backgrounds, would have to pay for the fees and cater for upkeep themselves, with some risking not joining university at all.
Helb CEO Charles Ringera told Business Daily that they were now waiting to pay Universities and colleges opening in April following their extended breaks.
The disbursement of the state loans comes barely days after the board announced that the number of former university students defaulting on loans had risen further.
On March 2, 2022, Helb said 109,661 former students had defaulted on payments amounting to KSh 10.9 billion as of December 2021.
HELB loan disbursement status, repayment and Registration using SMS services/Mobile phone
A student can also access HELB loan services using Short message services, SMS. The following services can be obtained through SMS code:
- Loan Application and Disbursement status.
- Loan repayment status.
- Loan balance.
- Loan mini-statement
- HELB Compliance and Clearance Certificate Checker.
- Loan repayment and many more.
HOW TO REGISTER FOR HELB LOAN MOBILE SERVICES.
- Go to your dialer on your mobile and enter *642# and send.
- Then Select/ enter 1 and send.
- On the next window prompts, provide your: First name, last name, National ID number, date of birth.
- Enter a PIN you can easily remember and confirm it.
- A registration success message will be displayed thus: “Thank you for registering with the HELB mobile platform. You will receive SMS Confirmation Shortly.”
Read also: How to apply HELB Subsequent Loan 2022-2023 via Mobile App or USSD Code