The Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) is asking Parliament to grant it powers to freeze bank accounts of over 316,000 former university students who have defaulted on their student loans, in a bid to recover Sh35 billion in unpaid debt.

HELB Chief Executive Geoffrey Monari told the Parliamentary Committee on Public Investments on Friday that the agency needs authority similar to that of tax authorities to enforce repayments.

“My request is for legislation that allows us to freeze accounts of former students doing business but not repaying their loans, similar to how the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) freezes business accounts,” he said.

“This would encourage defaulters with steady incomes to comply. We can provide a detailed proposal outlining the laws we need to recover these funds.”

Monari said 464,000 loan beneficiaries have been repaying for more than a decade, yet HELB only collects Sh66 million monthly and continues to rely on allocations from the National Treasury.

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In contrast, 316,000 former students have not begun repayment.

“If we can get even a portion of these defaulters to start servicing their loans, it would significantly boost cash flow and enhance our capacity to support current university students,” he said.

He added that HELB operates an inspectorate department to ensure employers deduct and remit loan repayments. Employers who fail to comply are fined Sh3,000 per student every month.

Monari also cited enforcement challenges with graduates living abroad, but said HELB is collaborating with Kenyan embassies and the State Department of Immigration to improve cross-border tracking.

For self-employed graduates, HELB uses credit blacklisting through the Credit Reference Bureau to encourage compliance.