By Obegi Malack
obegimalack@gmail.com
Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) has announced plans to borrow Sh22 billion through a bond to buy university students laptops for e-learning purposes.
The state agency has indicated that it will issue its social bond to supplement government capitation which has not been enough to cater for the increasing number of students.
HELB CEO, Charles Ringera, says they had earlier estimated a Sh5.5 billion budget but the applications of the funds to acquire the loans have gone high, now hitting an estimated amount of Sh22 billion.
The current university enrolment stands at 700,000 out of which only 20 percent of students have laptops, creating the need to borrow the money through the bond for new laptops.
According to HELB, Treasury and Capital Markets Authority (CMA) have approved the plan to issue the bond.
They have already secured a sovereign guarantee from the government for the bond and are now seeking advice for the issuing of the bond.
The agency has current assets worth Sh110 billion that can be used as security for the bond.
Eligible students are each funded by HELB to a tune of between Sh35,000 and Sh60,000 per year.
Loan defaulters have weakened the agency’s ability to support more students, forcing it to reduce allocations where in the current financial year, an average of between Sh37,000 were issued to each student, down from Sh45,000 the previous year.
