The Bola Tinubu led government said it has initiated the necessary preparations to ensure the commencement of student loans between September and October 2023.
The Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Education, Andrew David Adejo, shared this information during a press briefing in Abuja.
He disclosed that President Tinubu has already given approval for the formation of a committee comprising ministries and agencies. This committee’s primary responsibility is to oversee the implementation of the recently enacted Students Loan Bill.
Just last week, Tinubu fulfilled his campaign promise by signing the Student Loan Bill into law. The bill, introduced by Femi Gbajabiamila, the Speaker of the 9th House of Representatives, aims to provide interest-free loans to financially disadvantaged Nigerian students.
The law’s objective is to facilitate affordable access to higher education for underprivileged Nigerians through interest-free loans from the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, explained the Permanent Secretary.
Adejo said “The bill is to make sure that every Nigerian has access to higher education through what we called the Higher Education Nigerian Bank.
“Learning from past mistakes, the bank is not going to be the type that will sit down and be collecting application loans, it will also perform normal banking functions and make sure loans are given because we had cases of loan recovery in the past.
“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 20th of June.
“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,” he added.
He added that the government would create a specialized bank for the operation of the loans, adding that there will be a tracking system for the efficient running of the loans scheme.
The Permanent Secretary equally stated that the loan would cover both students in private and public schools.
He said, “We are not going to use existing banks. We are going to create a new bank that will address this because we can’t use an existing bank.
“We don’t want to make it that only people who want to go to public schools will benefit from, private schools are paying tuition so you have to give them the opportunity
“The loan is for you to get an education programme and get employed then you start paying back. The loan recovery does not start until you get employed.
He applauded President Tinubu, describing him as a job creator.
“Our current president today is a job creator from his experience from the private sector and he has given us policy direction and job creation is one of the things he is going to do, even though you cannot create a job for everybody,” Adejo said.
He said that, as of June 12, only three people have seen the Act, which is the president, the current Chief of Staff and himself.
“What you have seen is the bill. The president has assented to the bill, let us wait to see the Act and you get the Act when it is transmitted to the Ministry of Justice to produce a gazette,” he stated.
