The Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) has issued an urgent directive to Kenyan employers, emphasizing their obligation to remit student loan deductions from employee salaries. This update outlines critical responsibilities and potential penalties for non-compliance, aiming to ensure timely and consistent repayments.

• HELB mandates that employers report new hires who are loan recipients, deduct the correct monthly amounts, and remit payments by the 15th of the subsequent month.
• Failure to comply can result in a penalty of 5 per cent of the unpaid amount per month for late remittances.
• Employers failing to notify HELB of new loanee employees face criminal charges, with fines of not less than three thousand shillings for each month of non-notification as per Section 17 of the HELB Act.
• HELB has launched an online portal for employers to register, report new beneficiaries, view deduction schedules, and make payments, streamlining compliance.