International Students intending to Study In Kenya to Pay for Passes in Dollars

International Students To Pay For Passes in Dollars

The Ministry of Education (MoE) has issued a directive that will affect international students intending to study in Kenya. The Education CS has directed that these students but pay 100 USD for their pupil passes.

This directive was issued last week at one on the Kenya’s International University while speaking with one of the officials. Additionally, Kenya has updated the Missionary Visas fees from Ksh 15,000 to Ksh 150,000.

In the new set regulation, its clear that no internation student will pay in Kenya shillings.

The admin further said they were shocked to realize that they are supposed to pay 100 USD which translates to Ksh 13,200 up from Ksh 5,000.

On the same directive, it was indicated that these students will no longer be able to make payments using the mobile money since it only allows Payment in the local currency.

It still remains unclear why the administration decided to triple to fees for these international students studying in Kenya. This directive has caused havoc among Kenyan schools hosting international students.

Its approximated that in Kenya, over 6,000 international students attend university education and other middle level institutions. The sun of students account to Master studies, its evident that Kenya receives over 50,000 international students attending schools from primary all the way to University.

This directive is now affecting all students attending schools overseas right from Kindergarten to university.

“We prepare our fee structure using Kenyan shilling, but now it is complicated to do so due to the volatility of the dollar,” she went on to say.

The administrator further gave reasons saying that they prepare fees structures in Kenyan shillings but due the volatility of the dollar, the fees keeps fluctuating in hours and even a day.

Academic institutions hosting international students have been directed to make payments on behalf of students via Electronic Foreign Services (eFNS)

International Students To Pay For Passes in Dollars

Individual students will not be able to make payments as they need bank accounts specifically for this purpose.

This directive has proven to be hard for these students as they need a pass to apply for an Alien ID that will aid them to open an account with the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) that will now allow students to have bank accounts.

The admin has expressed discontent going by the fact that they process 40 application every semester. This calls for increasing the school fees in order to curb the volatility of the Dollar.