30 August 2023

• Aspira introduces Soma Education Loan to ease financial burden on parents.

• Parents or guardians of the learners from kindergarten to universities will be able to get funding of up to Sh500,000

As schools will be opening their doors for the third term this week and the following, parents can now apply for loans to help pay for their children's education.

This is according to the buy-now-pay-later company Aspira, which has introduced a financing program called Aspira Soma Education targeted at supporting children's education in various types of educational institutions.

The Aspira Soma Education Loan facility would offer assistance of up to Sh500,000 to parents or guardians of students in kindergarten through universities.

According to Aspira Kenya COO Irshad Muttur, the credit can be accessed by existing customers as well as newly onboarded clients. The Soma loan was launched in the country in a bid to empower parents to offer their children quality education.

“Kenyans place a high premium of education, and this facility is designed to solve the challenges in paying school fees for students and aims to ensure funds are available when the parents, guardians and sponsors need them,” he said.

“Getting timely access to education financing should not be a problem especially when it affects the welfare and future of your child. Soma Education Loan is bridging that gap by empowering parents in terms of convenient and affordable finance so that our children can stay in school and learn,” said Mr Muttur.

Borrowers can repay the loans within the school term at an affordable interest rate of only 2% per month.

Primary and secondary school learners are expected to resume their studies for the third term from August 29.

More than 140,000 and 300,000 students are expected next month to report to institutions of higher learning and training colleges respectively with most parents raising concern over lack of funds to pay fees due to ‘hard economic times.

Aspira Kenya was launched in 2018, giving Kenyans more choice about how to buy goods and services ranging from household goods and personal electronics to travel and insurance, on credit, with free credit assessment, competitive rates and limits of up to Ksh 500,000 for individuals while SMEs can draw up to Ksh 3 million to upscale their businesses.