HELB to publish names, photos of defaulters in dailies

The Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) has now threatened to publish the names and photos of 85,000 student loan defaulters in a desperate bid to compel them to pay up. Those who are not servicing their  loans have been asked to get in touch with the board in the next 30 days or get published in local dailies, and get sued thereafter.

“The names and pictures of Helb loan beneficiaries who have defaulted repayment of the loan from 1975 to date shall be published in the leading newspapers after expiry of 30 days from the date of this notice and thereafter legal action may be taken against each defaulter,”  reads the statement.”

Failure to pay the student loans, HELB pays, puts the board in a bad place as far as granting new loans to student who need them is concerned. Among some measures it has put in place before resorting to the latest naming and shaming stunt, is providing amnesty for people loan defaulters some time last year. This move that helped them recover Ksh 500 million. They now look to recover the Ksh 50 billion that is still owed to them.

A total of 169,909 graduates had fully repaid their loans worth Sh13.2 billion by September 2017, while  136,783 beneficiaries were servicing loans worth Sh20.7 billion.

Those who are targeted by this latest move are people who have ignored earlier communication from the board. They are now required to get in touch with the board, check their amounts and communicate their repayment plans.

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