The Federal Government (FG) has postponed the launch of the Nigerian Students Loan Scheme indefinitely.
The postponement, InsideBusiness gathered, may not be unconnected with the controversies that surround the provisions of the loan which stakeholders have knocked down to be unrealistic for access and repayment.
Now an Act, the law provides for interest-free loans to poor Nigerian students.
The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, Akintunde Sawyer, in an interview with Arise News on Tuesday announced the decision to postpone the launch of the scheme.
The loan, which was originally scheduled to commence on Thursday, has been postponed once more.
Sawyer explained that the delay is due to some corrections being made regarding the launch.
He said, “Unfortunately, I won’t be able to commit to a specific date. We are sort of waiting to ensure that all the stakeholders are aligned to make sure that nobody is blindsided, then we can actually roll this out in a meaningful, comprehensive, wholesome, and sustainable way.”
In June 2023, President Bola Tinubu signed a bill to establish a Students Loan Fund that would provide interest-free loans to Nigerians for higher education.
The bill, sponsored by Femi Gbajabiamila, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, was initially scheduled to commence between September and October 2023.
President Tinubu had announced that the scheme would commence in January 2024 after his government failed to meet the October deadline the previous year.
In January, the Minister of State for Education, Yusuf Sununu, announced during a meeting that preparations for the programme had been completed. This included the development of the Student Loan Scheme website and planning for the program’s commencement.
President Tinubu reassured the leaders of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) during their visit to the State House in Abuja that the programme would start once its expansion to include additional features, such as vocational studies, was completed.
Among stakeholders who have knocked the policy, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) had warned that the Student Loan Mandate is not feasible, considering the poverty levels in the country.
ASUU National President, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke had in June last year when he appeared on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics programme said the scheme is “not sustainable”.
Osodeke had explained that the conditions for the loan are “not practicable”, adding that more than 90% of students won’t meet the “stringent requirements” to access and repay the loan.
“We, as a union also did research of countries all over the world, of people who have benefited from this loan, but they were committing suicide. Recently, (President Joe) Biden is trying to pay back the bank loans of some who borrowed in the US,” he said.
He added, “It is better to look for alternative means of funding education than to encumber students whose parents earn N30,000 a month with a loan.
“The idea of student loans came in 1972 and it was in a bank established. People who took loans never paid. You can go and investigate. In 1994, 1993, the military enacted Decree 50 and also set up a Students’ Loan Board. The National Assembly domesticated it in 2004 and within a year, it went off. The money disappeared. We want to see how this one will be different.”
The ASUU President further implored Bola Tinubu to change the newly assented Students Loans Act to grant for indigent students.
“This would have been better if we are giving it to those set of students who are very poor, it should be called a grant, not a loan.
“It should be called a grant since it is coming from the Federation Account and not that (after) these people have access it and when they are graduating, they have heavy loads behind them and within two years, if they don’t pay, they go to jail. That’s why we’re talking about collective bargaining, you have views from all the sides,” he stated.
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