Before commencing your application as a first timer, you must answer some questions called financial literacy questions and pass. These questions apply for both undergraduate loan and TVET loan first time applicants. The questions are not hard and therefore students should not worry. However, failing in those questions may terminate your application process.
Overtime, the Higher Education Loans Board has realized that most of the loan beneficiaries do not know the purpose of the loan. Most of them, if given the loan, use it for purposes other than the ones intended for it. For instance, some learners believe that that money is meant for fun and Partying. Imagine you have just completed high school and someone gives you Kshs. 25000. Most people will compensate for all the parties they have missed in their lives. Alcohol addicts will compensate for all the bottles of liquor they missed before joining college. Lover boys will compensate for all the ladies they have always wished to possess but poverty has never chanced them. There is yet another group of first years who will start using the money to solve the financial difficulties back in the village. Still, some students will opt for the ‘most expensive’ mobile phones, ampex / sayona sub woofers or some heavy desk top computers.
What majority of first years fail to realize is that the ‘L’ in HELB means loan and any loan taken must be repaid with interest within the agreed time. Is it wise to take a loan and drink the whole of it?… or to engage it in an activity that is not profit bearing?
Through its commitment, HELB has devised a financial literacy tool to guide students concerning what they should and what they should not do with their loans. Through these questions, applicants also commit themselves to repaying the loan and get to know the reasons why the loans should be repaid.
To prepare your self, click Financial literacy quizzes and learn more.
