HELB information page - Everything you need to know

helb information page

HELB Application Forms, HELB loan status, and loan disbursement

Visit the links below to access the Higher Education Loans Board Kenya – HELB Loan application forms and check your HELB loan status, disbursement, and repayment in Kenya for all categories ie First-time Applicants, Postgraduate / Continuing  Education, Scholarship Forms…etc

HELB Websitehttp://www.helb.co.ke/

HELB Loan Application Forms

HELB Loans and Bursaries links, Click the links as follows:

1. Apply for a Loan – Helb application forms
2. Apply for a Bursary – Helb bursary application
3. Apply for Scholarship – Helb scholarship application

Helb Loan Status – Helb Loan Disbursement Status

4. Enquiries – Helb Enquiris
5. Loan Status – Helb Loan Status

Helb Loan Repayment Status

Repaying your loan will help other students benefit from our loans
1. Repay your Loan
2. Loan Repayment Status
3. Loan Repayment Modes
4. Student Guide
5. Employer Guide

HELB Loan Website: www.helb.co.ke and Contacts

Physical Address: University Way, Anniversary Towers, 18th Floor,
Postal Address: P.O. Box 69489 – 00400, NAIROBI, Kenya.
Tel: +254 711 052 000 020 2278000
Website: http://www.helb.co.ke

I forgot the HELB student Login Password

If you have forgotten your HELB Student Login Password

  • Visit this LINK
  • Click on “Forgot Password?” link
  • Enter your email address to reset your password
  • An activation link will be sent to your registered email address where you will be prompted to change the password.

HELB Account Recovery/Update

The recovery form is for users who want to recover their HELB Students’ Portal Credentials or change their ID. No., email, or password.

To access the form:

  • Click on “Unable to login?” link in the https://portal.helb.co.ke/auth/signin
  • Select ID. No. Or Email and Enter The Corresponding Value then click search
  • A popup window will appear telling you to confirm If The Following Details Describe You
    Names: ——
    Phone No: ——-
    Email: —–
    Reg. No: ——–
  • Click on the necessary option to proceed
  • Complete the options in the new window and recovery details will be sent to your email address

HELB Loan E-mail Addresses:

Loan Repayment enquiries:- recovery_enquiry@helb.co.ke

Employers forward monthly Loan repayment schedules:- remittance@helb.co.ke
Disbursement, Bursary and loan Awards Enquiries:– lending@helb.co.ke
Apply for Advertised Jobs at HELB:- Jobads@helb.co.ke
Complaints should be channeled to: complaints@helb.co.ke

HELB Loan: Helb awards loans to the following categories of students:

HELB Loan for Diploma and Certificate Students

Students pursuing Diploma and Certificate courses in Public universities, university colleges, public national polytechnics and Institutes of Technology and Technical Training institutes country-wide are eligible for TVET loan and bursary.

Orphans, single parent students and others who come from poor backgrounds will be given priority for the loans and or bursaries.

HELB Loan for Undergraduate Government or Self Sponsored Students

Students pursuing undergraduate programmees in Public universities and university colleges are eligible to apply for Direct Entry Students Loans. These loans are for students joining public or private universities/colleges within the East African Community directly from high school either through the KUCCPS or as self-sponsored.

HELB Loan for Post Graduate students

HELB awards scholarships to postgraduate students pursuing their Masters or Doctoral studies. The award is based on academic merit. Scholarships are allocated to universities every year, based on the population of their student. The application period is April to July every year and the beneficiaries are announced before the beginning of the academic year in September. Applicants are required to pay a processing fee of kshs 3,000

HELB Loan Application Requirements

Helb Applicants are required to have the following before applying for HELB loan:

  1. A Copy of your National Identification card. HELB uses your ID No to identify an applicant. You will also use your national Id No when creating an account.
  2. A valid bank account. Students who qualify for loan awards will have their personal bank accounts credited before the beginning of each Semester. Students are advised to open accounts in the following collaborating banks:
    1. Kenya Commercial Bank
    2. National Bank of Kenya
    3. Kenya Post Office Savings Bank (Postbank)
    4. Cooperative Bank of Kenya
    5. Equity Bank.
  3. KRA pin from the Kenya Revenue Authority. The Pin helps the board to track its loanee’s. It is therefore an important element in the application process.
  4. Your Parent (s)/ guardian particulars. This includes name, marital status, level of education, and source of income, employee details, current pay slip and employee No. (If employed).
  5. Your Parents Death certificate (If not existing).
  6. Copy of letter of admission to the university/college.
  7. Copies of two guarantors’ ID’s.
  8. Three Recent colored passport size photograph

HELB Application: First Time Undergraduate Helb Loan Application (Used in 2016/2017 Academic year)

The Higher Education Loans Board invites applications for the 2016-2017 First Time Undergraduate Loan from Kenyans admitted into Government of Kenya-Sponsored or Self-Sponsored Programs in Public or Private Universities in Kenya and the East African Community that are recognized by the Commission for University Education [CUE].

HELB Loan Application – Eligible students:

  1. Government of Kenya-Sponsored undergraduate Students placed by Kenya Universities & Colleges Central
    Placement Service and admitted by the universities.
  2. Direct Entry Undergraduate Self-Sponsored Students.

How to Apply for a HELB Loan – HELB Loan Application Guide / Instructions

  1. Applicants should access and fill the 2016-2017 First Time Undergraduate Loan Application Form [LAF] from the HELB website www.helb.co.ke.
  2. Print TWO copies of the duly filled Loan Application Form.
  3. Have the form appropriately filled, signed and stamped by the relevant authorities and guarantors.
  4. Sign the form and attach all the necessary documents as indicated in the checklist appearing on the last page of the LAF.
  5. Present the two copies of the LAF to one of the listed banks that you have opened an account with, for verification and insertion of your bank account details.
  6. Leave one copy of the LAF and all the attached support documents with the bank for free delivery to the Board OR drop it personally at the Board’s Office on 18th floor, Anniversary Towers OR in the following Huduma centers nearest to you:- Nairobi GPO, Kakamega, Eldoret, Nakuru, Mombasa, Kisumu, Nyeri, Embu, Machakos, Kisii, Bungoma, Turkana, Meru and Kitui.
  7. Retain one copy of the duly filled LAF (Mandatory).

Please ensure that you read, understand and follow the instructions provided at the beginning of the online loan application process. The closing date for the loan application is September 30th, 2015.

For more information please contact:

The Chief Executive Officer/Board Secretary
Higher Education Loans Board at
lending@helb.co.ke

About Higher Education Loans Board – HELB Kenya

The Higher Education Loans Board, HELB, is the leading financier of higher education in Kenya. It is a State Corporation under the then Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology. HELB was established by an Act of Parliament (Cap 213A) in 1995.The mandate of the Board is to disburse loans, bursaries and scholarship to students pursuing higher education in recognized institution. HELB provides affordable loans bursaries and scholarship to Kenyans pursuing higher education. Key among the responsibilities of the Board is sourcing funds, establishing, managing and awarding loans bursaries and scholarships to Kenyans pursuing higher education in recognized institutions. Through the Act, the Board has been able to recover funds loaned out to Kenyans in the past.

History of Higher Education Loans Board and HELB Loan

The genesis of the Higher Education Loans Board dates back to 1952 when the then colonial government awarded loans under the then Higher Education Loans Fund [HELF] to Kenyans pursuing university education in universities outside East Africa notably Britain, USA, former USSR, India and South Africa. Students who were pursuing university education in universities outside East Africa and were not on scholarships were advanced loans by the then government against securities such as Land Title Deeds, Insurance policies and Written Guarantees. However by 1974, provision of education in general had expanded intensely as a result of the heavily subsidized primary and secondary education and the general yearning for education by most Kenyan families. Consequently, the number of students seeking university education had grown to an extent that it was becoming increasingly difficult to adequately finance university education by providing full scholarships and grants by the Government.

The Government therefore introduced the University Students Loans Scheme (USLS), which was managed by the Ministry of Education. Under the scheme, Kenyan students pursuing higher education at Makerere, Nairobi and Dar es Salaam universities received loans to cover their tuition and personal needs, which they would repay on completion of their education. However, the University Students Loans Scheme (USLS) was plagued with a number of problems right on the onset. It lacked the legal basis to recover matured loans from loanees. In addition, the general public and university students wrongly perceived that the loan was a grant from the government, which was not to be repaid.


In order to address this problem, in July 1995 the Government through an act of Parliament established the Higher Education Loans Board to administer the Student Loans Scheme. In addition, the Board is empowered to recover all outstanding loans given to former university students by the Government of Kenya since 1952 through HELF and to establish a Revolving Fund from which funds can be drawn to lend out to needy Kenyan students pursuing higher education. The establishment of a revolving fund was also expected to ease pressure on the exchequer in financing education, which currently stands at 40% of the annual national budget.

Tertiary education financier Higher Education Loans Board (Helb) plans to run a lottery and offer education saving plans by the end of this year as it moves to cut its dependency on taxpayer funds.

Profits from the lottery, to be run in the form of raffles, will be used to finance the agency’s loan book, which currently faces a massive funding gap.

Helb chief executive Charles Ringera said plans are also underway to offer child education plans as a new strategy to mobilise long-term funds for the education sector.

Under the proposed plan, parents can save as low as Sh1,000 monthly towards meeting their children’s future cost of college education.

“We want to introduce education savings products and education lotteries all geared towards increasing the revolving fund,” said Mr Ringera.

The new funding proposals are aimed at overhauling the current Helb Act that came into force in 1995 and is now seen as outdated and rigid.

“We want to reform our Act to help address the myriad challenges. We want a more progressive Act that will allow us to mobilise deposits from the public,” said Mr Ringera in an interview with the Business Daily.

The United States is an example of a country that uses education lotteries to offer scholarships to learners.

Mr Ringera said the proposed law will empower the board to run a variety of lotteries — ranging from scratch tickets, SMS-based raffles and online sweepstakes — and use the proceeds to fund higher education.

Critics, however, questioned Helb’s ability to offer investors returns that match those offered by insurance companies if it goes into the savings business.

Jubilee Insurance, Kenya’s biggest underwriter, pays a bonus of between four and six per cent per annum on its child education plans – which also offer additional benefits such as life cover, tax breaks and can be used as collateral when applying for a loan facility.

The Helb chief executive said the Bill is currently undergoing review at the Education ministry and expects the proposed law to be published by June.

Helb has hitherto relied on the Treasury and recoveries from past beneficiaries to disburse new loans but the rising number of university students has made it difficult to meet growing demand.

For instance, half of the 67,124 government-sponsored students who joined public universities last year failed to get loans due to a funding crisis, and those who received loans had to wait for four months till January this year to receive the cash.

Helb in 2008 extended its loan programme to needy students in self-sponsored programmes (commonly known as ‘parallel’) in public universities as well as those attending private chartered universities, adding pressure to its purse.

Similarly, the number of public universities has grown threefold to 23 from seven in 2007.

Kenya’s betting industry – especially sports gambling – has experienced phenomenal growth, aided by the ease of placing bets online or through SMS and paying via mobile money platforms such as M-Pesa.

SportPesa and Betway – the official sponsor of English premier league side West Ham United – are some of the big names in Kenya’s betting market.

Kenya’s mobile-based gambling fad has even caught the eye of Arsenal Football Club, which last month signed a deal with SportPesa to grow its fan base in Kenya and reach out to local supporters.

The top-flight English Premier League team said it will offer Kenyan fans exclusive bets under the partnership with SportPesa.

Helb’s plans to cash in on Kenyans’ gambling craze and offer education plans is the agency’s latest in a series of initiatives planned to boost its loan book.

There are also plans to partner with the National Transport and Safety Authority to tie renewal of driving licences to servicing of Helb loans in order to catch defaulters.

Helb has already smoked out 8,000 past loanees who hold driving licences but have not been paying their loans, Mr Ringera told the Business Daily.

The new plans are also in line with proposals made by the task force appointed by President Uhuru Kenyatta to streamline parastatals.

Source: Business Daily

HELB Loan Status: First-year university students asked to apply for Helb

Updated: 10.08.2015

The Higher Education Loans Board has asked students who qualified for university admission to apply for Helb loans and send their applications.

However, the institutions the students have been admitted to must be recognised by the Commission for University Education (CUE), the Ministry of Education and also registered with Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS).

“Government-sponsored and self-sponsored students are entitled to apply,” said the board Chief executive officer Charles Ringera.

About 100,000 students are set to join universities and colleges this year with 67,790 joining 31 public universities, 12,000 have been admitted to colleges and 20,000 others will join private universities.

However, Mr. Ringera said less than a half of the students will get the government study loans.

He said the amount of money the agency received is insufficient to support all needy students.

He said about 34,000 students out of the 100,000 will benefit from the study loans.

Helb was allocated Sh7.5 billion this financial year, leaving a gap of about Sh2 billion of which Sh6.3 billion will be for continuing students and the remaining Sh1.2 billion for first-year students.

HELB Loan: Helb sets loan ceiling at Sh. 50,000

The Higher Education Loans Board (Helb) has reduced the highest allocation per student by 20 per cent for freshmen who are expected to start receiving funds Tuesday, after a four-month delay.

Helb says the near-doubling of first-time applications to 110,000 has seen the agency reduce the maximum loan amount to Sh50,000 from Sh60,000 per academic year.

“The unprecedented number of applicants caught us off-guard; we had to allocate funds to a larger number of students than we had anticipated,” said Charles Ringera, the HELB chief executive officer.

First-year students who joined public universities and tertiary technical institutions from last September have been surviving without the loans needed to pay for meals, housing, and personal upkeep.

Mr. Ringera says last year’s re-basing of the economy, which showed that Kenya is now a middle-income country with a per capita income of Sh113,386 ($1,246), also indicates that students generally require less support from the State to finance their university education than they did previously.

“The system we use to calculate and allocate loans factors in the income of a beneficiary’s parents or guardians. Since the economy was rebased, their improved earnings have been captured by the system.”

Helb’s maximum allocation has remained at Sh60,000 for more than six years while the minimum allocation is Sh35,000.

The Sh60,000 is given to disadvantaged students like orphans, after confirming their economic and social status in a verification process that Helb concluded last week.

Students, however, claim that these funds are not enough given the higher cost of living, leaving Helb – which is grappling with funding inadequacies – with a tough balancing act.

Freshman loan applications to Helb last year increased by 96 percent to 110,000 from the 56,000 that the State agency received and processed the previous year.

Approximately 90,000 of these applications came from undergraduate students and another 20,000 from students picked to join Technical, Industrial, Vocational and Entrepreneurship Training institutions.

“Out of the 110,000 first-time applicants, 65,000 qualified for loans but not all will benefit in one phase,” said Mr. Ringera. “With such an increase, no one can say we failed to plan: we have been sitting in meetings but the number is far beyond our capacity.”

The disbursement brings to an end a prolonged wait for students who have had to survive one semester without the crucial funds.

The Kenya University Students Organisation had issued a strike notice to pressure Helb to release the funds but called it off at the last minute after the State agency promised to comply.

Helb loan amounts Awarded

The funding system that took effect on September 2017 will see a student studying dentistry get the highest funding, at Sh600,000, while the lowest funding, of Sh144,000 per year, will go to a student taking a Bachelors of Arts (general) degree course.

A student studying medicine will receive Sh576,000, while one taking veterinary medicine will receive Sh468,000.

A student taking a pharmacy degree course will receive Sh432,000, engineering (Sh396,000), architecture (Sh384,000), built environment (Sh360,000) and agriculture (Sh324,000).

Students studying education (science) per year will get Sh288,000, science (Sh264,000), applied social science courses such as hospitality and tourism (Sh240,000), business and law (Sh216,000) and applied humanities (Sh180,000).

 

HELB loans Kenya 2019 – HELB news and HELB applications guide at hand

Updated:12/3/2019

HELB NEWS UPDATES & HELB DEADLINES!

Undergraduate Subsequent Online Application for FY 2019/2020 is now open. The deadline is on 31st March, 2019. Apply via www.helb.co.ke HELB Jielimishe Loan for civil servants who aspire to further their education is now open. Visit helb.co.ke/jielimishe to apply. To check your HELB status or access customer service, dial *642# First and subsequent TVET loan application has been closed. 2018/19 HELB loan disbursement for Sem Two (2) is ongoing. Loan appeals and reviews are open

How HELB loans work?

The Higher Education Loans Board gives financial support for applicants who are going to take postgraduate or undergraduate studies. The aid is disbursed in the form of loans, bursaries or scholarships and must be repaid immediately after completion of one’s studies or at any other time which is stipulated in the HELB terms for a particular produc (i.e. loan type). The primary purpose of helb students loans is to help needy students whose parents cannot afford expensive education. HELB loans are not intended for wealthy families and for students with no financial difficulties.

HELB eligibility – who can apply?

HELB loans are available to all Kenyan citizens who can service the loan immediately after its disbursement.

HELB products – HELB loans, HELB bursaries and HELB scholarships

Higher Education Loans Board offers the following services and products to Kenyan citizens:

a) HELB loan

i. Dipoloma students loans (Technical, Vocational, Education and Training)

Can be obtained by individuals who pursue diploma courses in Institutes recognized by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and are registered with KUCCPS.

ii. Undergraduate Students loans for:

Direct Entry Students (DES) – secondary school leavers who are planning to enter all sorts of universities within the states of East Africa either through the Kenya University Placement Board Services or as self-sponsored students. Loan interest is 4%p.a. Loans are available from Kes 37,000 to Kes 60,000.00 per year. Loan repayment is required after completion of undergraduate studies. HELB first time applicant needs to apply through helb student portal.

Continuing Education Students (CES)- employed students who want to enhance their academic qualifications by obtaining a degree. Loan interest is 12%p.a. Loans are available from Kes. 50,000 to Kes 100,000. Loans processing fee is Kes 2,000. Loan repayment is required immediately after disbursement (remitted to the educational institution as tuition fees). HELB application form for continuing students is available online on the helb co ke official website.

Postgraduate Students – students on Masters or PhD programmes who would like to finance their studies. Maximum loan sum is Kes 200,000.00 per year. Loans processing fee is Kes 2,000. Loan interest is 12% p.a.

b) HELB bursary

i. Undergraduate bursaries are awarded to undergraduate students who require financial support to study in the government sponsored programs.

ii. Technical, Vocational, Education and Training Bursaries are awarded to undergraduate students who require financial support who pursue Diploma courses in TVET recognized Institutes.

c) HELB scholarships

HELB awards partial scholarships to Masters and PhD applicants basing on their academic merit. Loans processing fee is Kes 3,000 which is paid upon submission of the form. HELB application form for HELB scholarships can found at www.helb portable.

HELB application forms for non-salaried applicants

Undergraduate First Time Applicants
Undergraduate Second and Subsequent
Undergrad Loan Review/Appeals
Constituency Loan Application Forms Embu
Constituency Loan Application Forms Tinderet
Constituency Loan Application Forms Naivasha
Constituency Loan Application Forms Igembe
Constituency Loan Application Forms Karachuonyo
Constituency Loan Application Forms Awendo
TVET for Tertiary Institutions
TVET for Tertiary Institutions Second and Subsequent
Afya Elimu Fund (AEF) Subsequent Loan Application
First Time and Subsequent Afya Elimu Fund Pre-Service
Visa Oshwal Scholarship.

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