Relief for first year students as Gov’t releases Ksh.14.4B for scholarships, loans

The government has disbursed the second batch of Ksh.14.4 billion for scholarships and loans to first year students in public universities under the new Higher Education Funding Model.

Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu made the announcement on Thursday, saying the funds will benefit government-sponsored students who successfully made their applications through the recently launched financing portal.

He said the funds would also benefit the 2023/2024 cohort of continuing students who are in their second semester of study.

“Beneficiaries of the first year loans and scholarships are those who successfully made their applications through the Higher Education Financing portal that we officially launched on the 31st of August 2023,” Machogu said in a statement.

The CS outlined a breakdown of the expenditure saying Ksh.10.39 billion of the total amount would be disbursed to the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB), while Ksh3.98 billion would go to scholarships through the Universities Fund (UF).

The allocation, Machogu noted, brings to Ksh.23.6 billion the amount of money the government has so far released to first year students under the new model launched in May by President William Ruto.

Last month, CS Machogu announced the release of Ksh.3.9 billion for loans to the first cohort of first year students who sat for their KCSE examinations in 2022. 

In October last year, the government disbursed Ksh.5.3 billion for student loans and a further Ksh.10.3 billion was released to HELB in September 2023 to cater for continuing student loans in universities and TVET colleges.

Students were allocated their individual shares through the recently established Means Testing Instrument (MTI), which determines the student’s level of financial need.