The
Higher Education Loans Board (Helb) has finally released Sh1.8 billion to
university students to avert a looming strike. This was announced by Helb’s
chief executive Charles Ringera who said that the students will be able to
access the money starting today Friday.
However,
the more than 56,938 government-sponsored first year students who started
reporting last month will have to wait until November to get loans.
The
University students had threatened to go on strike on Friday over delays in
release of Helb loans and further act within two weeks if the amount disbursed
is not retained at last year’s level.
Treasury
secretary Henry Rotich allocated Helb Sh4 billion in this year’s budget and the
board recovered Sh3.3 billion last year, against a demand of Sh14.3 billion it
says it needs to loan to more students. Helb
plans to offer loans to more than 60,000 freshers and about 15,000 new students
admitted to technical and vocational education and training institutions.
No comments:
Post a Comment