Apply for a HELB loan for TVET, diploma or certificate studies
Higher Education Loans Board · sources read 30 Sep 2026
Once you have your TVET college admission letter, register on the HEF student portal (hef.co.ke) and submit your first-time loan and scholarship application. In later years you apply again on *642# or the HELB app.
- Fee
- We couldn't confirm a fee from the official page. Check it there before you pay.
- Where
- Online on the HEF student portal (hef.co.ke / portal.hef.co.ke). Later years: *642# or the HELB mobile app. HELB office: Anniversary Towers, 19th Floor, Nairobi
What you need
- Your college admission letter
- A copy of your national ID
- Your KCPE and KCSE index numbers and exam years
- A passport-size photo
- Your parents' ID numbers and registered phone numbers
- ID numbers and phone numbers of two guarantors (they can be your parents)
Steps
- Get your official admission letter from the TVET college first. You need it before you apply.
- Go to hef.co.ke, open the Student Portal and register an account with your ID number (or KCSE index number if you have no ID).
- Complete your profile, then submit your scholarship and loan request.
- Accept the loan terms, add your guarantors and your bank or M-Pesa payment details, then submit the loan application.
- In the following years, if you got funding before, apply again by dialling *642#, on the HELB app or on the M-Pesa mini app.
Watch out
- Use a phone number registered in your own name, or you can't apply for the loan.
- Check that your college is on HELB's Approved TVET Institution List before you apply.
- Funding is not automatic. You have to apply every year when the window opens.
Who can apply
- TVET trainees in institutions under the Ministry of Education can get both government scholarships and loans.
- HELB gives loans and bursaries to students in TVET colleges and universities, public and private.
Official sources (4)
- TVET Loans helb.co.ke · read 30 Sep 2026
- Higher Education Financing (HEF) home page hef.co.ke · read 30 Sep 2026
- HEF FAQs hef.co.ke · read 30 Sep 2026
- HEF Student Portal portal.hef.co.ke · read 30 Sep 2026