University students being served at HELB offices. [Photo/nation]Thousands of first year university students will have to wait longer for the Higher Education Loans Board (Helb) disbursements after many of them failed to sign loan application forms.Charles Ringera Helb chief executive said the awarding of the loans cannot start until all applications are signed and submitted.He said that about 74,541 were signed while 29 per cent were in breach of the signature rule.Mr Ringera said, “We may rush to award loans and leave out needy students and that is what we do not want” noting that the students are likely to start receiving their loans in the last week of October.He is encouraging the applicants to submit duly signed application forms to enable the processing of loans to start.In addition Mr Ringera said, “With the above numbers we hope to fund slightly over 80,000 first time applicants at a total cost of around Sh3.3 billion,”. He also noted that Helb has already paid 155,000 continuing students half of their annual allocation.Enrolment in public universities and private has increased from last year and Helb is facing a bigger crisis as the government plans to sponsor students in private universities.

Share news tips with us here at Hivisasa