FG to start disbursing student loans in September

 By: News Peddlers 

Federal Ministry of Education

According to the federal government, arrangements are being made for student loans to start between September and October 2023.

David Adejo, the permanent secretary of the Federal Ministry of Education, said this to media on Wednesday in Abuja in regard to the bill President Bola Tinubu had signed.

In order to keep a campaign promise, Mr. Tinubu signed the Student Loan Bill into law on Monday.

The speaker of the ninth House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has sponsored a bill that would offer interest-free loans to indigent Nigerian students.

According to Mr. Adejo, the bill will make it simple for poor Nigerians to enroll in higher education with interest free loan provided by the Nigerian Education Loan Fund.

He claimed that both private and public school kids are covered by the loan.

He stated that Mr. Tinubu has also given his approval for a committee made up of ministries and organizations to ensure the success of the loan program.

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 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 phantom the process for people to get the loan,” he said.

The permanent secretary also said 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 said 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 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,” he said.

(NAN)