The Federal Government has said that it is working out modalities to begin the disbursement of student loans from September.
Permanent Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Education, David Adejo, disclosed this while answering questions from journalists in Abuja, on Wednesday.
On Monday, President Bola Tinubu signed the bill to give students access to interest-free loans into law.
According to Adejo, the President has directed that the first recipients of the loan must be available for the 2023/2024 academic session.
“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 on 20th 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,” Adejo said.
Underscoring the importance of the law, Adejo said that indigent students would have easy access to higher education through interest-free loans from the Nigerian Education Loan Fund.
“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,” he said.
The student loan act continued to receive support from interested stakeholders, including the National Association of Nigeria Students (NANS). The association praised President Tinubu for its signing while urging him to review the constitution of the special committee that will oversee the new Nigerian Education Loan Fund to include student representatives.
While leading other leaders on a visit to President Tinubu in his office on Tuesday, NANs President, Umar Barambu said: “We are here to congratulate you and to thank you for what you have been doing for the country since you assumed responsibility as the President. We want to equally thank you for the Students Loan Bill.”
