The governmental agency tasked to support needy students by giving them loans for fees as they pursue their higher education has made a new move that will see paying off the loans easier and efficient.
The Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) has sought partnership with telecommunications companies like Safaricom, Telkom and Airtel to introduce mobile payment platforms for the loans, they especially target the defaulted loans.
"The board wishes to explore the option of a mobile smart payment solution for the disbursement of student loans, bursaries and scholarships to institutions of higher learning,” said HELB chief executive Charles Ringera as quoted.
HELB further invited the interested telecommunications companies to come forward and introduce the platforms which will be convenient for use.
If this move is implemented, Helb will be counted among agencies like National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) and National Social Security Fund (NSSF) as government agencies using mostly Mobile payment platforms in their transactions.
HELB has recently been hit by financial crisis after the previous beneficiaries fail to repay the loan citing unemployment.
HELB had threatened to sue 78,328 individuals that had defaulted over sh7.7 billion on December 31, 2019. Some defaulters were also blacklisted by the Credit Reference Bureau (CRB).