President Bola Tinubu, yesterday, assented to a bill to establish an education bank towards providing interest-free loans to Nigerians seeking higher education.
Interim spokesman for the president, Mr. Dele Alake, announced this to journalists at the state house, Abuja.
Entitled ‘An Act to Provide Easy Access to Higher Education For Nigerians Through Interest-Free Loans From Nigeria Education Bank Established in this Act with a View To Provide Education for All Nigerians and for Related Matters,” the bill was sponsored by the chief of staff to the president and former speaker of the house of representatives, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila.
The Act recommends two years imprisonment or N500, 000 or both for students who default in repayment or anyone found aiding defaulters.
“We are very happy to announce to you that today Yesterday)…the President, His Excellency, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, signed into law, the Student Loans Bill and that Student Loans Bill. You all know what it entails, what it connotes the meaning.
“This is the promise made during the presidential campaign by the then candidate, His Excellency, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, that he will bring back the student loans issue to the front burner and today, that promise he made has been kept,” Alake said.
Recall that Tinubu, in his ‘Renewed Hope’ manifesto as the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), promised to pursue the establishment of the education bank towards enhancing access to quality education at the tertiary level.
“We will institute a pilot student loan regime…this will expand access to education to all Nigerians regardless of their backgrounds.
“At the same time, this will give institutions the ability to charge more cost-reflective tuition fees. Because of the current employment rates and other conditions, the loan program will have a maximum limit any student may borrow and must have flexible repayment provisions.”
Alake explained that the Act “will allow or enable our indigent students to access federal government loans to fund their educational pursuit or career and this is how it’s done in other developed climes all over the world.
“So, this is a boom to our youths, to our students nationwide. Of course, there are prescribed qualification parameters and that is the proof of indigeneship of whoever is to be a beneficiary and other prescribed parameters will be there.
“Of course, there are committees to be set up, the members of committees drawn from various bodies to superintend over the efficient and proficient disbursement of this facility,” Alake said.
Alake further said the law would take immediate effect but the committee would superintend over the procedures.
Meanwhile, the law rules out five categories of persons who are not eligible for the loan.
They are: Applicant who has been proven to have defaulted in respect of any previous loan granted by any organisation; applicant found guilty of exam malpractice by any school authority; applicant with a criminal record of felony or any offense involving dishonesty or fraud; anyone who has been convicted of drug offenses; and applicants whose parents (father or mother) have defaulted in respect of student loan or any loan granted to him or her.
