….as ASUU warns Act could send many students out of school
Abuja—The federal government, Wednesday, said it had begun putting all necessary measures in place to ensure students loan begin between September and October 2023.
The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Andrew David Adejo, disclosed this while speaking to newsmen in Abuja on Wednesday.
He said President Bola Tinubu has already approved a committee made up of ministries and agencies to see to the realization of the Students Loan Bill he recently assented to
Recall that the Tinubu had last week, signed into law the Student Loan Bill in fulfilment of a promise he made during his campaign.
The Students Loan Bill, sponsored by the Speaker of the 9th House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, provides for interest-free loans to indigent Nigerian students.
The law is to provide easy access to higher education for indigent Nigerians through interest-free loans from the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, the Permanent Secretary said.
Adejo said “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, the president has approved the committee made up of the Ministries and agencies and their meeting will be coming up 20th of June.
“The president has also directed that by September to October of 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 added.
The Permanent Secretary further said the government will create a specialised bank for the operation of the loans, noting that there will be a tracking system for the efficient running of the loans scheme.
He also said it will cover both students in private and public schools, adding that the government will 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, 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 as a job creator he 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.”
According to him, as of June 12, only three people have seen the Act, which is the president, the current Chief of Staff and himself.
“What you have seen is the bill. The president has assented to the bill, let us wait to see the Act and you get the Act when it is transmitted to the Ministry of Justice to produce a gazette,” he said.
Meanwhile the Academic Staff Union of Universities, (ASUU) said the Student Loan Bill has the potential of sending many students out of school.
ASUU President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke stated this while speaking with newsmen on Wednesday, according to the Vanguard.
Osodeke said the law might have an adverse effect on millions of prospective students who rely on tuition-free higher institutions of learning to acquire knowledge.
He said, “A country where more than 133 million are living below the poverty line and you want to introduce tuition fees? It will be counterproductive.
“Every Nigerian should know what is going to happen next and there may likely be another bill waiting for signature that will introduce tuition fees.
“If the bill indicated that the loan is to pay tuition fees and there are no tuition fees in Nigerian universities, then what is your next approach?”
According to Osodeke, the bill is not new, revealing how the union rejected it when former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration brought it up.
He, however, noted that the union is yet to have access to the accurate copy of the law signed by Tinubu, adding that there was need to get and study it.
“We have said long ago, in 2017, to President Buhari when they came up with the issue of tuition fees, that every student will pay N1 million and we said you cannot put that in our agreement and you cannot use that to negotiate with us and with the nature of the country we have today, there is no way that will work.”
“What will happen is that the majority of students whose parents cannot afford it will pull out of school in anger and you know what that means, they will fight the society back. But let us get the correct information first before knowing the next steps,” he added.
