First-year university students have a reason to smile after the Higher Education Loans Board pledged to release their money by the end of next week.
Chief Executive Officer Charles Ringera said the board has received more than 32,000 forms at their offices which they have verified for funding and promised successful students that their education loans will be ready by September 15.
"As at closure of the application period last month, we had 89,900 online application forms with 63,000 having been printed," Ringera noted.
The HELB boss added: "The physical forms received so far are 32,000 and we continue to receive huge numbers daily. For those whose forms have already been received, verified and passed — funding starts on September 15."
Speaking to the press in Nairobi, Ringera said Sh42,000 will be the lowest amount allocated and Sh60,000 being the highest.
However, this will only benefit vulnerable orphans who will also get Sh8,000 bursary.
For the whole of this week, freshers have been reporting to their respective institutions in both private and public universities.
A total of 69,151 students who sat for their Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) last year qualified to join institutions of higher learning.
The HELB boss said a budget of Sh2.8 million has been allocated for 64,700 freshers this first semester.
This means about 4,451 students will probably miss out on the education loans.