Student Loan Scheme: Now let the Educational Revolution Begin!

By Dada Olusegun

On June 12, 2023, President Tinubu signed the Access to Higher Education Act, 2023, into law to enable indigent students to access interest-free loans for their educational pursuits in any public Nigerian tertiary institution. The Act, also known as the Students Loan Law, equally established the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, which is expected to handle all loan requests, grants, disbursement, and recovery.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on page 44 of his Renewed Hope manifesto, clearly stated that his administration will institute a students loan program following a similar model established by the Kaduna State government in 2018.

In fulfilment of that promise, a few days after the assumption of office, President Tinubu signed the Students Loan bill sponsored by then House Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila into law.

The Access to Higher Education Act provided for the establishment of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) to be domiciled in the Central Bank of Nigeria and administered through an 11-man Special Steering Committee chaired by the CBN Governor. This special committee comprising representatives from FIRS, Federal Ministry of Education, NUC, and other critical stakeholders has been constituted since last year and held their inaugural meeting on 19th February 2023.

WHY THE STUDENTS LOAN SCHEME IS A FORWARD LEAP

The student loan scheme is a game-changer and extremely important to Nigerian students, as it helps to make tertiary education in public institutions more accessible to those who come from very poor backgrounds or who are unable to finance their tertiary education. The scheme offers loans to students to cover the cost of tuition and other schooling expenses. According to the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, Akintude Sawyerr, students can access up to five hundred thousand (N500,000) from NELFUND annually for tuition fees and other expenses.

This potentially makes it a N2 million financial package for a four-year undergraduate course. This is unprecedented in the history of education in Nigeria. With this students loan programme, no student in a public tertiary institution will ever be denied access to education or prevented from sitting for exams on account of the inability to pay school fees. This means no unnecessary carryover due to the inability to sit for exams. A four-year course will be a four-year course. President Tinubu emphatically made this much clear on various occasions.

There are also tweaks to the scope of the loan program that would allow beneficiaries to apply part of the loan to take care of other expenses such as textbooks, accommodation, and feeding. The President, last January, equally directed that the loan programme be expanded to allow extending of interest-free loans to Nigerian students interested in skill-development programmes.

This directive by Mr. President showed how determined he is to develop the human capacity of all young Nigerians and not necessarily just those pursuing tertiary education. President Bola Tinubu knew how important it is for the scheme to accommodate those who may not want to pursue university education. He noted that skill acquisition is as important as obtaining undergraduate and graduate academic qualifications.

By supporting thousands of young people to pay for skill acquisition training, the Student Loan scheme is building an army of skilled workforce that can easily become self-employed and increase our nation’s productive base. The knock-on effect of this on the economy is massive!