The long-awaited student loan programme is set to commence on Friday, benefiting 1.2 million students in federal tertiary institutions across Nigeria, The PUNCH reports. Akintunde Sawyerr, Managing Director/CEO of the Nigeria Education Loan Fund, announced this at a pre-application sensitisation press conference in Abuja on Monday.
This initiative will initially cover students in federal universities, polytechnics, colleges of education, and technical colleges. Nigeria boasts 226 federal tertiary institutions, including 62 universities, 41 polytechnics, 96 monotechnics, and 27 colleges of education, according to the National Universities Commission.
President Bola Tinubu signed the Student Loans (Access to Higher Education) Act (Repeal and Re-Enactment) Bill, 2024, into law on April 3. This followed deliberations by the Senate and the House of Representatives on the report from the Committee on Tertiary Institutions and the Tertiary Education Trust Fund.
The Act, now in effect, established the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, a corporate body tasked with managing and investing funds to provide loans for higher education, vocational training, and skills acquisition. Crucially, it repealed the previous Student Loan Act of 2023, removing the family income threshold, allowing more students to apply for loans and take responsibility for repayment.
