In a notice published in MyGov, HELB expressed its commitment to recruiting transformative, competent, and self-driven professionals to join its team.

The available positions include one Director of Operations, six Deputy Directors across various departments, and eight Assistant Directors. Additional roles include Principal Officer (Legal Services), Principal Customer Experience Officer (Digital and Creative Services), Senior Customer Experience Officer (Digital and Creative Services), and an Internal Audit Officer.

HELB is also hiring two drivers and 11 Assistant Customer Experience Officers.

“The successful candidates will join a highly performing team and must not only be passionate, innovative, and qualified but also dependable, emotionally intelligent, and possess effective interpersonal, communication, and leadership skills,” the announcement stated.

Also Read: HELB Invites Applications For CEO Position

Qualified applicants are required to submit two hard copies of their application, including a cover letter, curriculum vitae, academic and professional certificates, and relevant testimonials. Applications should be addressed to: The Chairman, Higher Education Loans Board ,Anniversary Towers, 19th Floor P.O. Box 69489 – 00400 Nairobi, Kenya.

Alternatively, candidates can email their application and supporting documents to recruitment2024@helb.co.ke. All applications must be received by Tuesday, December 24, 2024, at 5:00 p.m.

“We encourage applications from all qualified individuals including Women, Youth, Marginalized Communities and Persons With Disabilities.”

The institution said only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

For more information click here.

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This move comes amid concerns over the current uncoordinated approach to issuing bursaries and scholarships.

In a letter to Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang dated August 14, Wetang’ula highlighted that the current system for awarding bursaries and scholarships often leads to duplication.

“We have received a petition noting that the current uncoordinated approach towards the issuance of bursaries and scholarships from public funds by the Ministry of Education, the National Government Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF), and county governments has, in some instances, led to a duplication of awards,” the letter read.

The National Assembly also noted that a petition has been filed in the High Court in Nakuru, seeking the consolidation of existing bursaries and scholarships to improve coordination.

“As a result, the Speaker of the National Assembly has instructed the office of the Clerk of the National Assembly to formulate a legislative proposal establishing a defined structure for the administration of public bursaries and scholarships,” the letter further stated.

Wetang’ula has requested the Ministry of Education to provide any relevant information that could assist in drafting the legislative proposal, including any existing policy documents or draft bills.

Meanwhile, the National Government Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF) Committee has launched a campaign opposing a proposed plan to consolidate all public-funded bursary schemes into one to enhance education financing.

Members of the committee voiced their concerns on Thursday amid ongoing debates about overlapping functions among public entities that finance education.

The debate intensified after a National Assembly caucus considered merging bursary funds to address issues related to the newly introduced university funding model.

Committee Chairperson Musa Sirma, MP for Eldama Ravine, emphasized the impact of the NG-CDF and urged the public to support its continuation.

He highlighted that the NG-CDF has been crucial in supporting poor households by covering school fees and upgrading essential learning infrastructure across the country.

“All of us are here to benefit from this vital fund, and you can clearly see what the fund is doing to improve our learning infrastructure,” Sirma said during an NG-CDF bursary distribution event in Dagoretti North Constituency on Thursday. He described the proposals to abolish the NG-CDF as ill-intended.

Echoing Sirma’s sentiments, Dagoretti North MP Beatrice Elachi urged parents to ensure timely payment of fee balances, noting that NG-CDF bursaries alone are insufficient to keep learners in school.

Their remarks follow Chief Justice Martha Koome’s proposal for free higher education to address bursary overlaps and the inequitable classification of students under the new funding scheme.

Koome suggested consolidating all bursary funds at the national and sub-national levels to mobilize the resources needed for free tertiary education.

She criticized the proposed funding model, which places students in different categories based on a socio-economic assessment of their families, as potentially disenfranchising students.

“A child who has qualified for university could be crying, saying, ‘I have been placed in Band V when I should be in Band I; therefore, I cannot afford to go to university,'” Koome observed. “In some cases, you may find that a well-to-do family has been placed in Band I,” she added.

Koome proposed consolidating bursaries administered by governors, Members of Parliament, and Members of County Assemblies to enhance funding for tertiary institutions.

Earlier, lawmakers proposed merging all funds and bursaries supporting needy students to address an apparent funding crisis in higher learning institutions.

The proposed reforms aim to consolidate the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) and all funds, including scholarships and bursaries issued by governors and legislators, both nationally and sub-nationally.

The current funding model places students in five bands using eight variables, including parents’ background, gender, course type, marginalization, disability, family size, and composition.

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In a gazette notice, the head of state said the former Senate speaker’s re-appointment was effective from September 19.

“President of Kenya and Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Forces William Ruto re-appoints Ekwee Ethuro to be the Chairperson of the Higher Education Loans Board, for a period of five years, with effect from the September 19, 2023,” the notice reads in part.

Ethuro was first appointed by former President Uhuru Kenyatta in 2018, after losing his Turkana gubernatorial bid.

At HELB, Ethuro is tasked with providing leadership and direction to the Board in order to meet its statutory obligations.

Section 4 (1) (a) of the Higher Education Loans Board Act, grants him powers to chair all board meetings and ensure that the Board’s business is conducted in a fair and efficient manner.

He is also expected to guide and support the CEO and other members of the Board.

The post Ekwee Ethuro Reappointed As HELB Chairperson For Five Years appeared first on KahawaTungu.

Step 1: Verify Your Eligibility

• Ensure that you meet the eligibility criteria for obtaining a HELB clearance certificate. Typically, you should have repaid your HELB loan in full, including any accrued interest.

Step 2: Visit the HELB Website

• Access the official HELB website at www.helb.co.ke.

Step 3: Log In to Your HELB Account

• If you already have an existing HELB account, log in using your credentials. If not, create an account by registering with your details.

Step 4: Access the Clearance Certificate Application

• Once logged in, navigate to the clearance certificate application section. This is usually found under the “Services” or “Applications” tab.

Step 5: Complete the Application Form

• Fill out the clearance certificate application form with accurate information. You will likely need to provide details such as your full name, HELB loan account number, National ID or passport number, and contact information.

Step 6: Review and Confirm

• Carefully review the information you’ve provided to ensure its accuracy. Any discrepancies may delay the processing of your clearance certificate.

Step 7: Pay Processing Fee

• Pay the processing fee for the clearance certificate application. The fee amount may vary, so refer to the HELB website or contact HELB directly for the current fee structure.

Step 8: Submit Your Application

• After payment, submit your application. You will receive a confirmation of your submission.

Step 9: Wait for Processing

• HELB will process your application, which may take some time. Be patient and check your email or HELB account for updates on the status of your application.

Step 10: Collect Your HELB Clearance Certificate

• Once your application is approved and processed, you will receive a notification indicating that your HELB clearance certificate is ready for collection. Visit the HELB offices or follow the instructions provided to collect your certificate.

Step 11: Keep a Copy for Your Records

• It’s essential to retain a copy of your HELB clearance certificate for your records. You may need it for various purposes, including job applications and further studies.

Important Tips

• Ensure that you have paid all outstanding HELB loan amounts and accrued interest before applying for a clearance certificate.
• Be vigilant about the accuracy of the information you provide on the application form.
• Keep track of your application status and any communication from HELB regarding your clearance certificate.

Please note that the above steps are based on the typical process for obtaining a HELB clearance certificate. Procedures may change, so always refer to the official HELB website or contact their customer support for the most up-to-date information and guidance.

Also Read: How to Join the U.S. Army from Kenya: A Step-by-Step Guide

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The Covid-19 penalty waiver was to come to an end on April 30 but has been pushed to June 30.

“We acknowledge that unemployment and underemployment and the challenging environment for loanees to start and run businesses has affected loan repayment,” Helb CEO Charles Ringera said.

You spoke and we heard you, so we have now extended Covid-19 Penalty Waiver by 60 days until 30th June 2022! #KamilishaMalipoYaHELB pic.twitter.com/RWOkm2VYB6

— OFFICIAL HELB PAGE (@HELBpage) May 4, 2022

Last month, the institution through its CEO announced it had embarked on an aggressive process to recover more than Sh10 billion that beneficiaries had not paid for over 10 years.

Charles Ringera confirmed that the tough recovery measures include prosecuting ‘hardcore’ defaulters. He further described hardcore defaulters as persons who have not been servicing their student loans for at least 10 years since completing their studies.

Read: Helb to Drag Defaulters to Court in New Recovery Measures

“It is not until the tenth year – after listing the defaulter with credit reference bureaus and efforts of private debt collectors fail – that Helb takes the extreme measures,” Ringera said.

Helb beneficiaries are required to start repaying their loans a year after completing their studies. Unpaid loans accrue Ksh5,000 penalties per month.

After one year, Helb starts sending reminders to beneficiaries with some honoring their pledges while others choose to ignore them.

Helb, he said, normally sends beneficiaries’ data to private debt collectors on the eight-year of non-payment.

In the past, graduates have decried unemployment as the main reason why most fail to repay their loans.

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Helb Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Charles Ringera confirmed on Tuesday that the tough recovery measures include prosecuting ‘hardcore’ defaulters.

According to Ringera, hardcore defaulters are persons who have not been servicing their student loans for at least 10 years since completing their studies.

The state corporation that falls under the Ministry of Education says it has filed cases in court against five hardcore defaulters, and plans are underway to sue many others who have remained nonresponsive despite numerous reminders.

“It is not until the tenth year – after listing the defaulter with credit reference bureaus and efforts of private debt collectors fail – that Helb takes the extreme measures,” the Helb boss said in an interview with The Standard.

Also Read: MPs Reject Bill Proposing Lower Interest on Helb Loans, Longer Grace Period

“When private debt collectors are unable to trace or get where you are, on about the tenth year, which is actually supposed to be the life of the loan, we now start taking prosecution aspects.”

Helb beneficiaries are required to start repaying their loans a year after completing their studies. Unpaid loans accrue Ksh5,000 penalties per month.

Ringera noted that the 12-month period is meant to allow beneficiaries to settle down before starting repaying the loan.

“Finish your school on fourth-year then you are given one year to settle. So that time, nobody is even harassing you,” said Ringera.

Also Read: Helb Proposes Laptop Loans for Students

After one year, Helb starts sending reminders to beneficiaries with some honouring their pledges while others choose to ignore them.

Helb, he said, normally sends beneficiaries’ data to private debt collectors on the eight-year of non-payment.

“We chase one another for like three years before now we say this debt is now approaching hardcore,” the CEO said.

“However, if during the intervening period, you have actually been able to see us, then nobody will list you.”

Some of the persons targeted received their loans as far back as 1979. Despite being blacklisted with Credit Reference Bureaus (CRBs) they have not made efforts to clear their loans.

Also Read: Student Cries For Help As Multimedia University Frustrates Bid To Reverse HELB Loan

In the new crackdown, Helb says, it’s relying on other agencies like the National Transport Safety Authority (NTSA), National Hospital Insurance Fund  (NHIF) and the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) to track and flag defaulters.

“On KRA, you can see they are paying taxes, on NTSA you can see they are buying their Subarus. This is how we are chasing one another. That is why we become a little bit hard in terms of even thinking about prosecution,” Ringera added.

Helb recently announced a 100 per cent waiver on penalties citing the effects of Covid-19 effects on the economy.

In November 2019, Ringera faced a backlash after threatening to name and shame defaulters in newspapers.

“Some beneficiaries who are in default have not responded to previous communication …therefore sustained default, hinders funding of other deserving Kenyan youth,” Ringera said then.

In the past, graduates have decried unemployment as the main reason why most fail to repay their loans.

Email your news TIPS to Editor@kahawatungu.com or WhatsApp +254707482874. You can also find us on Telegram through www.t.me/kahawatungu

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Helb Chief Executive Officer Charles Ringera said the agency had already disbursed loans to 10,000 students.

The rest of the students, Ringera said, will receive their first disbursement by mid-October.

“The first time applicants will have received their allocation by October that will help them in paying for their first semester,” Ringera told The Star.

The HELB boss noted that the state agency had received 85,000 applications so far.

Read: Helb Proposes Laptop Loans for Students

“Each day we receive an average of 200 applications and we expect the number to be higher than that by the end of the application window,” Ringera said.

Ringera, however, stated that despite the high number of applicants HELB can only support about 75,000 students at the moment due to budget constraints.

The HELB budget, Ringera said, currently stands at Sh3.2 billion.

Read Also: HELB Warns Public about Fraudsters Demanding Account ‘Activation Fee’

“Our budget allocation was cut by Sh1 billion this year, from Sh16.8 billion in the previous year to Sh15.8 billion and this has affected the provision of loans,” Ringera said.

This year, a total of 128,073 of the 142,540 candidates who qualified to join university were placed to pursue degree programmes.

This means that nearly half of the students will miss on loans to help them pay school fees and cater for basic needs such as food.

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In its report, the National Assembly’s Education committee rejected the Higher Education Loans Board (Helb) Bill, 2020, warning that if adopted, the state agency stands to lose Sh693 million annually and Sh3.4 billion in a period of five years.

Proponents of the Bill which was tabled in Parliament in October last year sought to make changes to the HELB Act and slash interest charged on the loans to three from the current four percent.

The Bill also sought to increase the period in which a beneficiary is required to start making payments to five years.

Currently, students in Universities and Colleges are required to start repaying their loans one year after completing their studies.

Read: Kenyans Decry High Helb Penalties On Graduates, Want Them Scraped

“The reduction of interest rate to three percent is likely to plunge the Board into a huge student funding deficit where many needy students will miss out on the funding,” it said in a report.

Proponents of the Bill had indicated that the proposals were meant to cushion jobless youth from tough penalties including Sh5,000 monthly fine for defaulters and the risk of being listed with the Credit Reference Bureau (CRB).

The committee also poked holes in the proposal to review the Helb Act and take away the power of setting the interest charges from the state agency.

Also Read: HELB Partners With Police to Hunt Down Loan Defaulters

According to the committee chaired by Busia woman representative Florence Mutua , the proposal to set the charges in law is ambiguous on who would set the interest rates and how it would be done.

“Subjecting applicants’ interest rate approval to a third party creates a risk of reducing Helb’s revenue in the event that the interest rate is varied downwards,” reads the report.

The committee further noted that reducing the interest rates would affect the institution’s ability to finance other students joining tertiary institutions every year.

Also Read: Helb Waives “Punitive” Ksh1,000 Non-beneficiary Compliance Certificate Fee

“In the event that the interest rate is varied downwards, Helb’s financial capacity to fund students will be grossly affected. This, therefore, requires the National Treasury to provide more budgetary allocations to Helb,” the committee added.

The committee further argued that the current interest rate of four percent charged is lower than the average inflation in the country which stood at 5.41 percent in 2020, noting that the actual value of amounts disbursed has eroded overtime since the annual interest rate charged is lower than the inflation rate.

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In the fake email shared by HELB on its social media pages on Monday, July 19, 2021, fraudsters purporting to be from the State Corporation were demanding Sh2,200 to activate ‘dormant accounts’.

“Your HELB account is inactive. You have a pending disbursement that should be deposited to your student bank account in 72 hours time. Kindly activate your HELB account for us to be able to complete the payment,” the email from ‘helbcontactcentre@gmail.com’ reads in part.

The cons shared a Paybill number and an account number where they asked the public to channel the monies.

Read: Helb Ordered To Pay Lawyer Ksh10 Million For Wrongful CRB Listing

HELB dismissed the content of the email and asked members of the public to ignore it.

“Our attention has been drawn to the below email whose content and address are fake. We wish to notify our esteemed customers that our official contact centre email address is contactcentre@helb.co.ke,” said HELB.

Our attention has been drawn to the below email whose content and address are fake. We wish to notify our esteemed customers that our official contact centre email address is contactcentre@helb.co.ke. pic.twitter.com/S7V3aBUJgw

— OFFICIAL HELB PAGE (@HELBpage) July 19, 2021

Nowadays, it is very common to find fraudsters trying to swindle money from probable victims by luring them into their snares and many have fallen victims.

Read Also: Helb Proposes Laptop Loans for Students

The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has been vocal on tricks used by scammers to defraud unsuspecting members of the public on online platforms.

HELB is a statutory body established in July 1995 by an Act of Parliament ‘Higher Education Loans Board Act’ Cap 213A.

It is a state corporation in the Ministry of Education with a mandate of financing higher education.

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The post HELB Warns Public about Fraudsters Demanding Account ‘Activation Fee’ appeared first on KahawaTungu.

“We have today (Monday) received the financial year 2020/21 quarter three capitation of Sh2.8 billion from the National Treasury. The pending student loan payments are currently being addressed and will be concluded by March 18,” Helb said in a tweet.

Helb disbursed up to Sh37,000 to students twice a year. Helb CEO Charles Ringera said the first disbursement is made in September for the first semester and by end of January for the second.

According to Ringera, Helb had delayed in disbursement because they had not received the funds from the treasury. None of the students had received their January disbursements and to make it worse, some students had not even received their first semester disbursements.

Read: Helb Proposes Laptop Loans for Students

Two weeks ago, Moi University students held demonstrations after it emerged online that they were going hungry due to lack of funds. Some lecturers also strikes citing non-payment. The university wrote to Helb asking them to expedite the funds in efforts to save the students’ dire situation.

“Given that Helb provides about Sh37,000 currently then it means the students of the household has to raise another Sh162,000,” Ringera told the committee.

Geoffrey Muluvi, the chairman of the Vice-Chancellors Committee expressed relief, saying the funds will help institutions that were currently struggling to operate.

“The university sector is like a chain. When the students fail to pay fees then the operations in the institutions are affected as well; you find a problem in paying lecturers and running operations,” Muluvi told the Star by phone.

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