Students across various universities in the country depend on helb loans to raise fee for their education and upkeep during their four year period at the university. The majority of these students are coming from a humble background and are not able to raise the school fees needed. Thus, opt for Helb loan to help them raise some amount for their fee and other needs.
A student usually gets around 40,000 to 60,000 during their academic year to cater to their needs in that financial year, which about 8,000 goes to their academic fee. This year, the wait for the loan to be disbursed has taken them by shock and those who were tired of the wait were forced to seek other alternatives to raise funds for their studies.
“When the government delayed to give us the Helb loan,as a student I felt like I’m gonna be left out because the portal wasn’t open, so it was hard for me to register my units and I had to do something alternative to gather funds. One thing I had to apply for the work study, that is a program from the dean’s office where I was able to earn at least a thousand in a week to sustain my meals. So, all the other funds I had for my meals, I had to put them to the fee so that at least I could be allowed to study. For me, that’s the alternative method I had to take as well as doing other graphics work.” George Kamau a fourth year student at the University of Nairobi, stated.
Things are really hard at the moment, and it has become unbearable for students who depend on their parents for their livelihood. ” We are really struggling as students since helb is the only source of income we have for some of us. With the cost of living being high, we have to skip meals to survive in school.” Omondi, a student of the University of Nairobi, said.
“Currently we have 140,000 students in Tvets and universities that we have not been able to fund to the tune of Sh5.7 billion because we have run out of the budget that we had presented to Treasury of Sh4.5 billion,” chief executive of Helb Charles Ringera had to say this when he appeared before the education committee at National Assembly. The number of learners applying for the helb loan is increasing every year, and the budget needs to increase to cater to the rising number of students.
President William Ruto, speaking at Kisii National Polytechnic, announced that the government had in the last two weeks disbursed enough funds to Helb to lend students across the country.
Months after the remarks, students are still struggling to make ends meet and have been waiting for the disbursement of the loan, which never seems to happen any time soon. Students and student’s leaders have been raising their concern over the delayed Helb loan and clearly insisting on timely disbursement of the loans, but all seems to have fallen on deaf years.
