President William Ruto has announced that the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) has been given enough funds in the past two weeks to lend to students across the country.
He spoke at Kisii National Polytechnic on Thursday afternoon on the first day of his 3-day visit to the Kisii, Nyamira and Migori counties.
"We have allocated enough money in the budget in the last two weeks. You now have money for HELB so that you can continue with your education without difficulties," he said.
This comes a day after HELB told MPs that students will have to wait longer until the Treasury releases Sh5.7 billion for onward disbursement to them.
"Currently, we have 140,000 students in TVETs and universities that we have not been able to fund to the tune of Sh5.7 billion because we have run out of the budget that we had presented to Treasury of Sh4.5 billion," HELB chief executive Charles Ringera said on Wednesday.
Speaking on Thursday, the President said 1,300 TVET teachers were going to be hired, promising 50 of them to Kisii National Polytechnic.
He urged those who are working at the Institution and are not employed by the government, to apply for the same once jobs are advertised.
"This is to ensure that we have additional tutors in this college so that we can assist the students to acquire knowledge and we reduce the burden on parents and on the college on paying teachers," he added.
Ruto also said next year by June, 2,000 teachers for TVET colleges will be hired.
He said the government will give further information on the same.
Further, he said he had directed Education CS Ezekiel Machogu to allocate Sh1oo million to finish the construction at the college.
He also promised 5,000 hostels for the Institute, noting that there is not enough housing for the students.
