The Higher Education Loans Board has opposed ODM leader Raila Odinga’s plan to give students free loans when he becomes president.
According to the Helb Chief Executive Officer Charles Ringera, there is already a Kshs 43 billion education grant that the government put in place.
“This is money paid to students in universities through the Differentiated Unit Cost (DUC) and they do not pay it back,” Ringera said.
Aside from the grant by the government, Helb is also issuing students with bursaries amounting to Kshs 237 million.
“We allocate Ksh8,000 per student as bursaries and this translates to Ksh 137 million for university students and Ksh 100 million for TVETs every year,” Ringera noted.
He argued that Helb should not be scrapped but should remain in place to finance more students.
On Tuesday October 19 at the Meru University of Science and Technology, Raila said that he will convert Helb loans into grants once he becomes the president after the 2022 general elections.
“Every child born in our country irrespective of the socioeconomic status of their parents will get equal opportunities from the nursery, primary to university education. That’s why I’m saying today when I get to power HELB will be a grant not a loan. HELB will be a grant, not a loan,” Raila told the students.
He also defended his plan to set up a social welfare protection that will see poor families a monthly stipend of Kshs6,000.
“We are going to introduce the biggest social protection programme in Africa. Every family which does not have a source of income will get a cash transfer of KSh 6,000 every month,” the former prime minister said.
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