The Ministry of Education on Wednesday 20th February announced it's going to take the matter of loan defaulters with the seriousness it deserves.
According to the Nation, the Education Cabinet Secretary said they are going to take a tougher approach in a bid to recover over 7.2 billion owned by over 74,000 loan defaulters for Higher Education Loans Board(Helb).
The Cabinet Secretary said the crackdown will start as soon possible and asked employers to cooperate to ensure those defaulters are held culpable.
“We are also going to partner with our law enforcement agencies to track down those holding jobs and yet are reluctant to stand up to be counted as responsible and patriotic citizens who honour their debts,” CS Amina Mohammed said.
HELB is a loan given to students at the tertiary institution to aid in their tuition fee as well as personal effects, however, recently the rules have changed making most of the money obtained to go directly into institution accounts. Before that, the money was being channelled to students personal account from which they could decide on how to spend it.
This latest development means former students who benefitted from HELB loans and are currently working, they should prepare for police involvement in the matter if they haven't yet started repaying the loan.