The Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) has intensified its debt recovery efforts, introducing aggressive new penalties for both employers and former students to claw back more than KSh 100 billion in unpaid loans.
In an announcement made on Friday, March 20, 2026, the Board warned that companies failing to declare staff with outstanding loans or neglecting to remit monthly deductions will now face a stiff fine of KSh 3,000 per employee every month.
To increase the financial pressure on non-compliant firms, HELB will calculate these fines from the very date the worker first joined the company.
Individual borrowers have also landed in the crosshairs of this fresh enforcement. Those who have defaulted on their repayments now face a new monthly penalty of KSh 5,000. HELB reports that it is currently pursuing approximately 20,000 employers and 360,000 beneficiaries to settle their arrears.
This move follows a 2025 directive that tasked employers with a primary role in loan recovery – a mandate the board says many have ignored.
The 2025 directive instructed companies to submit staff details for verification, deduct 15% from the salaries of any former HELB beneficiaries, and remit those funds directly to the board. Despite these clear instructions, HELB reports that many organizations have ignored the requirements, leading to the current rollout of strict monthly fines.
The Board confirmed that it will not cancel any unpaid loans, as it remains determined to collect the billions needed to support current and future university students. To assist with this transition, HELB directed employers to its dedicated Employer Portal. This digital platform allows organizations to register, declare new staff members who owe loans, and access official billing schedules to ensure they deduct the correct amounts.
To simplify the process, the Board also updated its approved payment systems to allow for real-time reconciliation of staff accounts. Organizations can now generate e-slips through the portal to avoid the KSh 3,000 monthly non-compliance penalty.
