FG to begin disbursement of student loans September

• Tinubu approves Committee for implementation

The Federal Government has confirmed working out modalities to begin disbursement of student loans between September and October this year.

Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Andrew David Adejo, made this known yesterday in Abuja, while addressing the press.

President Bola Tinubu had signed into law the Student Loan Bill in fulfilment of his campaign promise.

Sponsored by former speaker of the Ninth House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, the bill provides for interest-free loans to indigent Nigerian students.

The law is to provide easy access to higher education for poor Nigerians through interest-free loans from the Nigerian Education Loan Fund.

Adejo said the President had approved a committee made up of ministries and agencies to see to the realisation of the scheme.

According to him,  “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 (yesterday), the President has approved the committee made up of the ministries and agencies, and their meeting will be coming up June 20.

“The President has also directed that by September to October of the 2023/2024 academic session, he wants to see recipients of these loans. So it is a serious march order for us to phantom the process for people to get the loans.”

The permanent secretary also revealed that government would create a specialised bank for operation of the facilities, adding that there would be a tracking system for efficient run of the scheme.

He hinted that the programme would capture both students in private and public schools, adding that government would create a new bank for it.

Adejo added “We are not going to use existing banks. We are going to create a new bank that will address this.

“The loan is for you to get an education programme and get employed. Thereafter, you start paying back. The loan recovery does not start until you get employed.”

The permanent secretary described Tinubu as a job creator, who is tapping into his rich private sector experience to reinvent the wheel.