Three months ago, President Uhuru Kenyatta signed into law the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) amendment bill 2015.
This also came at a time when the treasury raised their (HELB) budgetary allocation to sh1.8 billion.
HELB charges an annual interest of 4 % on the loan if the borrower does not repay the loan one year after graduating. It also charges a monthly fine of sh5,000 but when the bill was passed into a law, the beneficiaries of the loans who do have a job can now write to HELB and inform them that they do not have a job and they will not be charged the monthly fine.
They will have to sign an affidavit indicating that they are jobless. HELB will not levy penalties on the loan but this will only apply to those who have the affidavit.
So if you have not gotten a job, you can comfortably write HELB and inform them to avoid the monthly fine. Nowadays, jobs are hard to find and some graduates stay as long as ten to fifteen years before landing a job and it will be unfair for HELB to levy penalties on their loans.