Hundreds of students, particularly those enrolled in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions, are reportedly struggling to access education due to delays and non-payment of funds by the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) for the financial year 2024/2025, despite the board’s ongoing assurances of smooth operations and adequate disbursements. Hundreds of Kenyan students are unable to sit for exams as HELB delays disbursement of approved tuition and upkeep funds for the 2024/2025 academic year.
According to growing complaints, while HELB announced the reinstatement of the old funding model and proceeded to open a new application window for the 2025/2026 financial year, a substantial number of previously approved bursary and loan allocations for the 2024/2025 academic period remain unpaid.
These include both tuition and upkeep components for students in various institutions across the country. Alt text: Screenshot of a student's HELB loan application status page from the Higher Education Financing (HEF) student portal, showing four loan batch numbers (HELB-006194, HELB-006242, HELB-006242, HELB-006238) all marked as “Not yet paid to account,” indicating delayed disbursement of funds.
The situation has left many learners in a state of limbo, particularly those in TVET institutions, where students have been denied the opportunity to sit for exams due to outstanding tuition balances that HELB had initially pledged to cover.
This disconnect between approval and disbursement has had significant academic consequences, including forced deferments and the withholding of academic records, all due to the failure of funds reaching school accounts on time.
Despite this, HELB CEO Geoffrey Monari has appeared in numerous national media interviews over the past few months, maintaining that the funding process is running efficiently and continues to empower students from all backgrounds. HELB CEO Geoffrey Monari has come under scrutiny as hundreds of students, particularly in TVET institutions, continue to await disbursement of approved tuition and upkeep funds for the 2024/2025 academic year, even as the agency launches a new funding cycle.
However, these public statements stand in stark contrast to what many students are experiencing on the ground, where approved funds reflected in HELB application portals have not been transferred to institutions or student bank accounts.
What is especially troubling for students is the announcement of a new financial year cycle for the 2025/2026 academic year, with applications already open for both first-time applicants and continuing students, while unresolved financial commitments from the previous year remain in limbo.
This overlap has caused confusion and eroded confidence in the reliability of the funding body to uphold its responsibilities.
At the core of the issue is the fact that students who received notifications indicating successful application and processing for tuition and upkeep for the 2024/2025 cycle are still unable to trace any actual remittance, either to their institutions or personal accounts.
Screenshots and documentation provided by some students show clearly dated confirmations for that period but no financial movement has followed.
As the situation unfolds, there is a mounting call for clarity and accountability from HELB to explain how it intends to resolve the backlog of unpaid disbursements before ushering in a new funding cycle.
Many students are demanding not only a full release of pending funds but also an explanation as to why they were left out in a system that has otherwise declared itself fully functional.
Below is what one of the affected students shared, offering a glimpse into the kind of documentation many say reflects a wider pattern of approved but undisbursed tuition and upkeep funds under the 2024/2025 cycle.
"Hi Nyakundi. I have an issue concerning Helb. After the old model was reinstated, few bursary batches were paid. This was for the financial year 2024/2025. The CEO Geoffrey Monari has been moving to National Tv's and Radio's claming that HELB is functioning well and empowering students. The funding body has opened a new financial year 2025/2026 for first time application and subsequent for continuing students failure to pay the last financial year. So many TVET students have missed their tuition fee and locked out from doing their exams due to lack of funds. My concern is about unpaid tuition and upkeep batches that have been disbursed and not paid to school and student account. The screenshot above is my application for the financial year 2024/2025."