By Obegi Malack
President William Ruto has dismissed reports indicating that the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) is broke.
Ruto who was speaking on Thursday in Kisii National Polytechnic said that the HELB has been given enough funds in the past two weeks to loan students.
The president said HELB has enough funds which will help students continue with their education without difficulties.
Ruto’s sentiments come after HELB CEO Charles Ringera on Wednesday told parliament committee that around 140,000 public university and TVET students had missed out on government loans in the current fiscal year.
Ringera told the National Assembly Public Investments Committee on Education and Governance (PICEG) that the loans board had exhausted its cash reserves and that students will have to wait for the national treasury to release Ksh.5.7 billion.
“Currently we have 140,000 students in TVETs and universities that we have not been able to fund to the tune of Ksh.5.7 billion because we have run out of the budget that we had presented to the Treasury of Ksh.4.5 billion,” Ringera told PICEG.
Ringera said the government also failed to release money they had requested to cover the cash shortage.
In the current fiscal year, HELB received Ksh.14.8 billion to finance student’s tuition fees and upkeep.
Students beneficiaries receive between Sh35,000 and Sh60,000 per year, of the total Sh8,000 is sent directly to the student’s institution as tuition fees and the balance to the beneficiary’s bank account in two equal tranches covering the first and second semesters.
Every month HELB collect around Ksh.400 million from former loanees which they add to the quarterly disbursements by Treasury to service applications by ongoing students.
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