{"id":92312,"date":"2024-09-16T16:03:28","date_gmt":"2024-09-16T16:03:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/index.php\/2024\/09\/16\/state-urged-to-seek-extra-funding-for-cash-crunched-helb\/"},"modified":"2024-09-16T16:03:28","modified_gmt":"2024-09-16T16:03:28","slug":"state-urged-to-seek-extra-funding-for-cash-crunched-helb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/state-urged-to-seek-extra-funding-for-cash-crunched-helb\/","title":{"rendered":"State urged to seek extra funding for cash-crunched HELB"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The State has been urged to be more innovative in addressing financial challenges facing the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) funds for desperate students.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dr Vincent Gaitho, Pro-chancellor at Mount Kenya University (MKU) says the government now has several sources of funding which are opportunities to boost cash inflows to the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) for later access by desperate students.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first one is the Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority which is holding about Ksh 45 billion lying idle. Some of these funds can be used to boost HELB but to be repaid later,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Dr Vincent Gaitho, who also chairs the KEPSA Education Sector Board, was speaking in a panel discussion on the government\u2019s new university funding model hosted by a local TV station at Machakos University. The model has been critized by students and their parents as discriminatory, inefficient and being wrought with system delays.<\/p>\n

The Pro Chancellor said multinational and other local corporates\u00a0 making and declaring super normal profits should also be encouraged to donate funds ( as a form of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to boost HELB\u2019s revolving funding to higher education students.<\/p>\n

\u201cRecently, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) handed over corruptly acquired assets worth more than Sh5 billion to President William Ruto. These assets can be given to HELB to fund students in institutions of higher learning,\u201d Dr Gaitho said.<\/p>\n

In a ceremony held at State House on September 11, EACC\u2019s CEO Twalib Mbarak handed over through the President to the Cabinet Secretary of the National Treasury in trust, titles to the various recovered properties. The corruptly acquired assets included 35 title deeds measuring 18.71 acres with a total value of Ksh 5 billion and cash assets totaling Ksh 511.4 million.<\/p>\n

According to Dr Gaitho, government allocation per students sponsored by the state in private universities dropped from Ksh 70, 000 when the programme started in 2016 to about ksh 40,000 when the project ended. This forced the private institutions to help the students scramble for bursaries, scholarships and other funds to close the gap.<\/p>\n

Today, private universities are not getting money directly from the government but are admitting students receiving loans from HELB.<\/p>\n

The Head of Lending at HELB, Mr King\u2019ori Ndegwa, admitted during the interview that there are delays in disbursing money to universities, colleges and student accounts because of competing demands at Treasury.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis might force reporting students to conduct fund raisers (harambees) in the meantime so as to meet personal needs and requirements by the institutions,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Dagorreti North MP, Beatrice Elachi, said a Bill is in process in Parliament to harmonise all the bursaries (from national and county governments, CDF, parastatals and the private sector) currently funding higher education to be centralised. She called on HELB to facilitate students without national identity cards (IDs) to access funding.<\/p>\n

However, according to King\u2019ori of HELB,\u00a0 55,000 new students without IDS have been allowed to use their KCSE index numbers and birth certificates to access funding.<\/p>\n

Meru University Vice Chancellor, Prof Romano Odhaimbo, warned students that whereas the fruits of higher education are normally sweet, the path to reap the fruit is tough, depressing and bitter. He said the State has set up a committee that includes student leaders to discuss the way forward on the new funding model.<\/p>\n

The VC said he himself was supported by well-wishers from primary school to Form Six. At university, he was funded by the government, while German Academic Exchange Programme sponsored him for his Masters and PhD education.<\/p>\n

He said out of 153,000 students who scored C+ and above in the 2023 KCPE results, 146,000 have signed on for assistance from the new funding model.<\/p>\n

\u201cPublic universities are owned by the State; vice chancellors are only CEOS. University councils are in charge of overall administration, budgets and approval of expenditures. Internal and government external auditors ensure that the funds are not being misused,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Machakos University\u2019s Deputy Vice Chancellor in charge of academic affairs, Prof James Mwola, said they were expecting about 3,000 First Years, of whom about 80 per cent had reported by last week. However, most of the entrants have been placed in Bands 3 and 4 and have been forced to appeal to HELB. \u201cThese are genuine cases,\u201d he said, asking students to file correct information in their appeals.<\/p>\n

Mr Emmanuel Manyasia, Executive Director at Usawa Agenda accused HELB, the government and Vice Chancellors of being economical with the truth.<\/p>\n

\u201cA VC told us recently that although students are being admitted before clearing their fees in full, but they cannot sit for examinations as per the rules of university councils,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The forum came on the backdrop of the recent roll-out of the new, controversial Variable Scholarship and Loan Funding model for university students, which has brought changes in how university students pay their fees.<\/p>\n

Previously, the government was funding university education through a Differentiated Unit Cost model- where its contribution to public universities was expected to be 80 per cent.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The post State urged to seek extra funding for cash-crunched HELB<\/a> first appeared on KBC<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The post State urged to seek extra funding for cash-crunched HELB<\/a> appeared first on KBC<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The State has been urged to be more innovative in addressing financial challenges facing the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) funds for desperate students. Dr Vincent Gaitho, Pro-chancellor at Mount Kenya University (MKU) says the government now has several sources of funding which are opportunities to boost cash inflows to the Higher Education Loans Board […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92312\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}