14-6-2023
President Bola Tinubu has approved the constitution of an inter-ministerial committee for the take off of the Student’s loan scheme
President Tinubu also directed that the first beneficiaries should receive their loan by September- October
The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education Mr David Adejo stated this in Abuja while providing insights into the student’s loan scheme.
He In a bid to ensure that every one including the less privileged in the society, The federal Government had in the past introduced different student’s loan scheme to to ensure that Nigerians including the less privileged have access to higher education, but the schemes are now defunct
Some of the previous schemes include Students Loans Board and the Nigeria Education bank.
Some of the issues that led to the failure of the previous efforts according to the permanent secretary federal Ministry of Education Mr David Adejo include, alarming rate of loan defaulters and the loans getting into wrong hands
“The Act 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 loan applications, 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 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 figure out the process for people to get the loan,” he added.
Mr Adejo said the issues and others would be corrected by the inter-ministerial committee set up to develop the working guidelines for the Nigerian Education bank
Mr Adejo explained that the loan is for completion of higher education and the repayment plan is after a beneficiary secure job after the compulsory one year service.
The Permanent Secretary stressed that the interest free loan is not for tuition alone as it is expected to see beneficiaries through school.
