The Chief Guest, Dr. Beatrice Muganda Inyangala, Principal Secretary, State Department for Higher Education and Research, HELB Chairman Rt. Hon. Ekwee Ethuro, University Administrators, and Students Leaders, Invited Speakers – Prof. Mike Kuria CEO Commission for University Education; Mr. Geoffrey Monari, CEO Universities Fund; Dr. Agnes Mercy Wahome, CEO Kenya Universities & Colleges Central Placement Service; Mr. Francis Anyona, Director Budgets, The National Treasury & Economic Planning; Ms. Esther Waititu, Chief Financial Services Officer, Safaricom PLC; Mr. Ashish Malhotra, CEO Airtel Kenya, Mr. Mugo Kibati CEO Telkom Kenya; and all the invited speakers and guests,

HELB Staff,                                                       

Ladies and Gentlemen, 

Good Morning.

I am truly grateful to you for finding time to join us in the HELB 2023 Universities Consultative forum, especially in the midst of the prevailing funding constraints. We truly value our stakeholder engagement which helps translate our shared needs into organizational goals and creates the basis of effective strategy development. Through these impactful engagements, we collectively discuss the critical points of consensus and the shared motivation towards delivering on our respective institutional mandates. Our periodic engagements with you as a key stakeholder ensures an investment in a meaningful outcome geared towards empowering the dreams of Kenyans youth.

But first, on behalf of the HELB management team and staff, allow me to pass my heartfelt condolences to the families, friends and colleagues of the Pwani University students who perished in a grisly road accident on 30^th March 2023 along Naivasha – Nakuru highway. May God’s grace & peace be sufficient to their families as they come to terms with the loss of loved ones.

Ladies and Gentlemen, 

In our endeavor to enhance citizen service delivery, we hold HELB Universities Consultative Forum every two years to discuss the Higher Education financing emerging issues and explore on ways to improve on service delivery. The Universities engagement is done in line with our Customer Centered Leadership pillar, as envisaged in the HELB Agenda 2019 – 2023.  This year particularly, we are holding this Forum bearing in mind the ongoing education sector reforms and funding constraints. The forum is therefore, aptly themed: “Sustaining Quality University Education amidst Sector Reforms and Funding Constraints.” As you are aware, the Country has been experiencing economic distress and contraction as a result of Covid-19 aftershocks among other factors. We are called upon to explore other alternative university funding mechanisms in order to address and meet the ever-growing student funding demand.

Regardless of these challenges, we appreciate the Government of Kenya through the Ministry of Education for the exchequer funding support. Nonetheless, as a key deliberate initiative, we have embarked on institutionalizing External Resource mobilization to aggressively mobilize for funds to supplement the Exchequer funding, even as the demand for our services continue to cause pressure on the current fund base. One of the ambitious and passionate initiative currently underway is the proposal for an Asset Backed Securitization [ABS] to progressively bridge the funding gap and to establish a sustainable financing model. We seek the support of the Government in rolling out this critical initiative.

We remain committed to strengthening our relationship with the Universities and other stakeholders amidst cash-flow constraints especially on effective utilization and accountability in HELB funding. The engagement with the government on new funding model is underway with a focus on supporting all needy students who seek HELB financing. As we continue with discussions, we will also be seeking to explore more areas of collaboration to enable us empower Kenyans Dreams.

Ladies and Gentlemen, 

In line with the initiative by the government to enhance digital transformation in the country through the digitization of all government services which aims at boosting digital competitiveness, HELB has partnered with Safaricom to offer students pursuing higher education, a mobile payment solution dubbed HELB Mobile Wallet Payment Solution.

In rolling out this solution, we seek to provide our customers with payment solution options over and above our banking solutions even as we build towards an omnichannel customer experience. This partnership with Safaricom will empower beneficiaries with more convenience and greatly enhance their options when accessing funds and our services. HELB beneficiaries can now access our services through the HELB Mini App or by dialing *642# where they can apply for subsequent loans, access their HELB upkeep funds, withdraw funds, view their loan status, access their statements, and repay loans, all from feature phones, an Android and iPhone app. Further, allow me emphasize that other key partners in the telecommunication sector like Airtel and Telkom Kenya are equally part of this Mobile Payment Solutions initiative and are in the process of on-boarding.

Ladies and Gentlemen, 

To efficiently deliver our services across the breadth and depth of the citizenry, HELB has modernized its core Information Technology and Communication infrastructure towards accelerating service delivery through technology rather than the traditional brick and mortar. We continue to pursue a customer centric strategy that consistently exceeds the citizens’ expectations. We are currently present in 28 Huduma Centres and have partnered with the Huduma Kenya Secretariat through their 52 Cyber Cafes across all the Counties to deliver HELB services to the Kenyan Citizens. Also, in a recently conducted Legal Compliance Audit, it was established HELB has put in place good governance practices, structures and working systems thereby complying with the applicable legal & regulatory requirements.

Ladies and Gentlemen, 

HELB began its External Resource mobilization journey in 2013/2014 aimed at sourcing for funds outside the exchequer to supplement government funding. To date HELB has mobilized over Kshs. 2.1B from 40 partners, which has gone into supporting over 55,000 beneficiaries who would have otherwise dropped out of funding. These partners come from Corporates, Development Partners, Devolved Units, Foundations and Trusts and Training Institutions among others from where sector specific funds including but not limited to commercial, financial, Health care, Education, communications, transportation, energy, Health care, Technology legal among others have been mobilized.

Further, we remain supportive to the Government’s effort in revamping the higher education sector through a series of reforms targeting funding, quality and relevance of our university education. We look forward to the recommendations by the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms in the coming months.

Ladies and Gentlemen, 

As I conclude, Financial Year 2022/2023 is the fifth (5^th) and the final year of implementation of the HELB Agenda 2019-2023 where we expect to reach an implementation level of over 90% by June 2023.  Therefore, implementation of well thought-out and tactical actions is ongoing.

The Public Service Commission Performance Management Regulations, 2021 stipulates that every public body shall develop and implement a strategic plan in line with guidelines issued by the ministry of State for Planning. The same is in line with the Public Finance Management Act, 2012, which states that accounting officers at the National and County levels shall prepare strategic plans for their entities. HELB has commenced gathering of ideas and thoughts from stakeholders towards formulation of New Strategic Plan. Global, Continental, and regional trends will be considered to inform the plan as well as aligning it to the Fourth Medium Term Plan – MTP IV (2023-2027) of the Kenya Vision 2030 and the Government’s Bottom-up Agenda (BeTA) on; Agriculture, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) Economy, Housing & Settlement, Healthcare and Digital Superhighway and Creative Economy; and Environment and Climate Change. Nevertheless, this is being done having in mind the ongoing discussions on Higher Education funding institutions and the awaited recommendations from the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms (PWPER).

I therefore, want to appeal to all our stakeholders for your solidarity and your financial support for the needy students who are struggling as you have seen on various media platforms.

Thank you once more for honoring our invitation to join us today!

It is my singular honor to welcome the Chairman, Higher Education Loans Board Rt. Hon. Ekwee Ethuro to make his welcoming remarks and thereafter, invite the Chief Guest Principal Secretary, State Department for Higher Education & Research Dr. Beatrice Muganda Inyangala

Karibu Sir!