Effectiveness of Communication Programmes in Loan Recovery: a Case Study of the Higher Education Loans Board

Abstract

Financing higher education solely from government coffers is becoming increasingly difficult owing to the rapidly growing demand for state resources for other equally important areas of national development such as health, security and infrastructure. It has therefore become necessary over time for the Government to devise ways of revolving funds so that that as many deserving Kenyans as possible can access higher education. HELB is mandated to shoulder this responsibility. For the Board to continue lending money to university students, it ought to effectively recover loaned out funds. HELB has so far lent out Kshs.14.4 billion but only Kshs.4 billion has been recovered. A staggering Kshs.l0 billion is outstanding and yet the number of students seeking financial support from the institution is growing. This study evaluated the role of communication programmes in the recovery of loans. The sample in respect of the study comprised loanees who had completed university . education and HELB staff in charge of loan recovery. The design used was both qualitative and quantitative research approaches. Structured questionnaires were used to collect data. Data was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The results were presented in tables of frequency distributions, percentages and graphs. The study revealed that there is a communication gap between the board and its loanees and that the programmes do not strongly influence loan repayment. It concluded that the

future of the Higher Education Loans Board lies not only its ability to disburse loans to students but on its ability to effectively recover loaned-out funds. The 'study recommends that the Higher Education Loans Board should apply sufficient and effective communication programmes to assist it in loan recovery. In, addition it should improve on the design ofits communications messages so as to make them more effective besides taking a fresh look at the timing of releasing its mediated messages.