Thousands of Kenyan students who sat their 2025 KCSE examinations and are awaiting university placement have been put on notice by the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) — the loan application portal is opening soon, and those who are not prepared risk being left behind.
In a notice issued on Wednesday, June 17, HELB urged first-time applicants to use the remaining waiting period to gather all required documents rather than scramble when the window opens.
“First-Time Applications will be opening soon. A little preparation now can save you a lot of time later. Stay tuned to our official channels for application updates,” the board said in a statement shared on its official social media platforms.
HELB CEO Geoffrey Monari has indicated that the portal is expected to open in the second week of July, pending the completion of the student placement exercise by the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS).
“We are just waiting for KUCCPS to complete their placement so that we can open, most probably by the second week of July,” Monari said during an interview.
So what exactly do students need to have ready? According to HELB, first-time applicants must prepare a valid email address and mobile phone number, their KCPE and KCSE index numbers together with the years they sat the exams, a recent passport-size photograph in JPEG, JPG or PNG format, and a copy of their National ID or Maisha Card showing both sides. Applicants must also provide valid bank account details or an M-Pesa number registered under their own national ID.
Minors applying for the loan must additionally upload a birth certificate in PDF format, while those who received sponsorship during their secondary school education will need to submit a copy of their sponsorship letter in PDF format.
On the parental and guarantor side, applicants must provide their parents’ national ID numbers and registered mobile phone numbers. Where a parent is deceased, a copy of the death certificate in PDF must be submitted. Two guarantors — who may be the applicant’s own parents — will also be required, with their ID numbers and registered mobile numbers.
The announcement comes as KUCCPS prepares to finalize placement details for 212,510 students who scored a mean grade of C+ and above in the 2025 KCSE — representing 79.1 per cent of the 268,714 candidates who qualified for university admission. Successful applicants will receive their full placement details, including university and course allocations, in July.
The government has set aside KSh56.7 billion for HELB in the 2026/27 budget to support higher education financing as the board continues rolling out the Student-Centred Funding Model.
With the clock ticking, HELB’s message to prospective students is clear: the time to prepare is now.
