President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on Wednesday, 3rd April 2024, signed into law, the Students Loan (Access to Higher Education) Repeal and Re-Enactment Bill 2024. The Act seeks to guarantee sustainable higher education and functional skill development for all Nigerian students and youths. The loan guarantees students to interest free N500,000 per year and N2 million for four years.
Students Loan Scheme is not new to Nigeria’s education setting; it was first established in 1972, via Decree No 12 Students Loans Board Decree, Lagos,13 April 1988. Between 1973 and 1991, it provided a total of about N46 million to finance undergraduate and post graduate education in Nigeria, both for local and international students.
The new Students Loan Scheme, came on board when on June 12 2023, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu signed into law, the Students Loan (Access to Higher Education) Bill, to become an Act. The objective was to create a legal framework for granting of loans to indigent or low-income Nigerians to finance their education.
Chairman of the Special Committee overseeing the Nigerian Education Loans Fund, (NELFUND), Olayemi Cardoso, explained that the primary objective of the Act was to see the accessibility of higher education for Nigerian students, saying that the President has directed that the scheme should be extended to cover Nigerians undergoing vocational training.
The Students Loan Scheme, which was originally, scheduled to be launched on Monday, 21 February 2024, but put on hold, following amendment to the Act, will be Funded through multiple streams like donations, gifts, grants, endowments and revenue accruing from other sources.
Chairman of the Special Committee, further explained that all that was required during application, was for students to input their personal data, including their National Identification Number; and their admission number; saying, when approved, the school fees will be disbursed directly to the schools and not to the student’s personal accounts.
Under the scheme, repayments would be through direct deductions of 10% from beneficiaries’ salaries, after graduation and employed; persons confirmed to be dead, terminally ill and incapable of earning a living through work will be granted waivers