The Federal Government has revealed that it is currently working out modalities to commence the disbursement of students loan by September 2023.
This is coming 3 days after President Bola Tinubu signed the student loan bill into law with the aim of giving students access to interest-free loans.
This was disclosed by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, David Adejo, while answering questions from journalists on Wednesday, June 14, 2023, in Abuja.
Adejo said that President Tinubu has directed that the first recipients of the loan must be available for the 2023/2024 academic session.
September, October chosen as the commencement date
Adejo said, “The act as it is tells us the process, but as I speak with you today, the president has approved the committee made up of the ministries and agencies and their meeting will be coming up on June 20.
- “The president has also directed that by September to October of this 2023/2024 academic session, he wants to see recipients of these loans. So, it is a very serious march for us. So between now and then, we have to phantom the process for people to get the loan.’’
Adejo, who underscored the importance of the bill, said indigent students would have easy access to higher education through interest-free loans from the Nigerian Education Loan Fund.
- He said, “Learning from past mistakes, the bank is not going to be the type that will sit down and be collecting application loans.’’
He added that it will also perform normal banking functions and make sure loans are given because we had cases of loan recovery in the past.
What you should know
Recall that on Monday, June 12, 2023, President Bola Tinubu signed into law the Student Loan Bill in fulfilment of a promise he made during his campaign.
The Spokesperson for the Federal Government, Dele Alake, who made the announcement, said the funds will be domiciled in the Ministry of Education and will only be accessed by indigent students of tertiary institutions.
The student loan bill sponsored by the Speaker of the 9th House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, which provides for interest-free loans to indigent Nigerian students, passed the third reading at the House, about 2 weeks ago.
The law is to provide easy access to higher education for indigent Nigerians through interest-free loans from the Nigerian Education Loan Fund.
Meanwhile, the recently signed student loan act has continued to get support from interested stakeholders.
The National Association of Nigeria Students (NANS) who applauded the act, praised President Tinubu for its signing and urged him to review the constitution of the special committee that will oversee the new Nigerian Education Loan Fund to include student representatives.
The leadership of NANS led by its National President, Umar Barambu, during their visit to President Tinubu to commend him on signing the act urged the president to remove the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) from the board.
NAIRAMETRIC
