The Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) of Kenya has hosted a delegation from Zambia’s Higher Education Loans and Scholarships Board (HELSB) for a week-long benchmarking visit aimed at strengthening regional cooperation in digital student financing.
The visit focused on sharing knowledge and experiences in technology-driven service delivery, innovation and the management of student financing programmes.
During the engagement, the Zambian delegation interacted with HELB’s technical teams and senior management to learn about Kenya’s systems for student loan application and processing, debt management, loan recovery and resource mobilisation.
Other key areas of discussion included the Means Testing Instrument, data management, cybersecurity and information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure.
The delegation also toured HELB’s data centre, gaining practical insights into the technologies and operational processes supporting the board’s student financing services.
The engagement provided an opportunity for both institutions to exchange ideas and share best practices in improving the efficiency, security and accessibility of higher education financing.
The visit comes amid efforts by both Kenya and Zambia to strengthen their student financing programmes through innovation, institutional partnerships and the adoption of technology.
HELB noted that such engagements underscore the importance of regional collaboration in developing transparent, efficient and secure systems that expand access to higher education.
The partnership is expected to support continued knowledge exchange between the two institutions as they seek to improve service delivery and contribute to national development through increased access to education financing.
