Kenya’s Higher Education Loans Board has been asked to pursue defaulters in the informal Jua Kali sector and private businesses.
HELB is now coming after Jua Kali artisans
Kenya's loans board has now been asked to pursue the small scale artisans in a bid to recover outstanding loans
Parliament, through Public Investment Committee (PIC), wants the loans board to pursue beneficiaries of the said sectors in order to recover part of the $236.9 million in matured loans that remained uncollected as at end of June 2015.
“The committee recommends that the board pursues its beneficiaries who are employed in the informal sector such as Jua Kali and private business in order to increase funding of the revolving funds to the ever increasing number of needy students,” said Aden Keyanan, Chair of the PIC.
PIC noted that more measures need to be put in place in order to recover more outstanding loans from former students.
The committee made the recommendations following the scrutiny of Auditor General Edward Ouko’s report on the financial statements of the State backed student loan facility for the three year period to June 2015.
The report notes that outstanding matured loans to students, loan interest and user charges stood at $236.9 million as at June 30, 2015.
HELB CEO Aaron Ringera however told PIC that the board has continued to reduce the nonperforming loans by using innovative ways to net loanees and increase loan recovery.
“This has resulted in continuous growth in recoveries from year to year,” he said adding that the board had increased the loan repayment channels, which has increased the convenience and efficiency for loanees to remit their loan repayments.
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