The Higher Loans Education Board is now threatening to take Kenyans not servicing their loans to court.
This comes even as the authority is struggling to raise funds to help them in funding the existing lot of students who are in dire need of loans to complete their education.
Helb Chief Executive officer Charles Ringera said on Tuesday that they will press charges against those who defaulted their loans in the last 10 years.
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Helb is legally mandated to take action after one is listed as a defaulter for a period of 10 years and fails to clear the loan.
“It is not until the tenth year – after listing the defaulter with credit reference bureaus and efforts of private debt collectors fail – that Helb takes the extreme measures,” the Helb boss said.
These recovery measures seek to ensure that Kenyans pay their loans to enable the board to carry out its operations.
Helb, which falls under the Ministry of Education, seeks to recover more than Sh10 billion that beneficiaries have not paid in the last 10 years.
Beneficiaries are supposed to start repaying their loans a year after completing their studies.
Unpaid loans accrue Sh5000 penalties per month.
According to Ringera, the one year period is to allow for beneficiaries to settle down before starting repaying the loan.
After one year, beneficiaries are reminded to start repaying the loan.
He noted that the body sends beneficiaries' private data to private debt collectors during the eight-year of non-payment.
