President Ruto Dismisses Reports that HELB is Experiencing Cash Shortage

President William Ruto has refuted reports that the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) is experiencing cash shortage.

While speaking during the first day of his three-day visit to Kisii, Nyamira and Migori Counties, on Thursday, March 23, the president stated that the government had, in the past two weeks, disbursed enough funds to HELB for lending to students across the country.

The head of state who spoke at the Kisii National Polytechnic added that the State is currently finalizing plans to hire 2,000 additional teachers for TVET institutions.

Moreover, president Ruto’s statement came after HELB CEO Charles Ringera on Wednesday, March 22 told Parliament that roughly 140,000 students from public universities had missed State loans, in the current fiscal year, as the loans board had exhausted its cash reserves.

Ringera has said that HELB will have to wait for the national exchequer to release Ksh.5.7 billion for it to dispatch loans to students who mostly use the advance to pay for their tuition fees and upkeep.

Also Read: We Are Too Broke to Give Students Loans – HELB

“Currently we have 140,000 students in TVETs and universities that we have not been able to fund to the tune of Ksh.5.7 billion because we have run out of the budget that we had presented to the Treasury of Ksh.4.5 billion,” Ringera told Parliament’s Public Investments Committee on Education and Governance (PICEG).

According to the CEO, the State also failed to cede to a request by the HELB to cover the cash shortage through an additional budget.