The Nigerian Government says it is working out modalities to begin the disbursement of student loans between September and October 2023.
The Ministry of Education’s Permanent Secretary, David Adejo made this known in Abuja on Wednesday while briefing journalists on the inter-ministerial committee set up to fine-tune the recently signed student loan act by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
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According to the Permanent Secretary, the committee which will meet on June 20th ,2023 for its inaugural meeting is expected to work together and ensure that the disbursement of the student loans start by September 2023 for the 2023/2024 academic session.
“The President has approved the constitution of an inter-ministerial committee on student loan made up of the necessary ministries and agencies. The inaugural meeting will come up on Tuesday, June 20,2023.
“The President has also directed that he wants to see that by September/October 2023/2024 academic session, he wants to see recipients of the loan so it’s a serious business”
Specialised Higher Education Nigerian Bank
Adejo disclosed that the government would create a specialised bank for the operation of the loans, noting that there would be a tracking system for the efficient smooth running of the loans scheme.
He added that this would cover both students in Private and public schools, adding that the government would also create a new bank for it.
“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 so that only people who want to go to public schools will benefit from it, private schools are paying tuition so you have to give them the opportunity
“We don’t want to make it so that only people who want to go to public schools will benefit from it, 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.”
While commending President Tinubu for this stride Adejo said,”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.
“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”
Tuition Fees
Speaking on reports of introduction of tuition fees, Adejo noted that Federal Government-owned universities lacked the financial autonomy to introduce tuition fees at the moment.
“Government alone cannot foot the bill for education alone and that is why we are doing public/ private partnerships. Universities are autonomous but what they don’t have yet is financial autonomy. When they get that, they will be able to answer the questions on introduction of tuitions.”
Meanwhile, a high-powered committee made up of representatives of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, the Nigeria Labour Congress, Nigerian Bar Association, Vice-chancellors forum of Nigerian universities, Rectors of polytechnics, Provosts of Colleges of Education, Ministries of Education, finance among others will be part of the board of the Student Loan Fund.
Source Of Funding
On the source of funding, it was stated in the student loan act that, “The sources of the Fund shall consist of education bonds; education endowment fund schemes; 1% of all taxes, levies and duties accruing to the Government of the Federation from Federal Inland Revenue Service, Nigerian Immigration Service and Nigerian Customs Service; 1% of all profits accruing to the Government of the Federation arising from oil and other minerals; all sums accruing to the Fund by way of donations, gifts, grant, endowment or otherwise; and other revenue accruing to the Fund from any other source.”
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