Student Loan Scheme Now To Begin January 2024

Apparently reacting to the Monday’s lead story on the front page of LEADERSHIP, President Bola Tinubu has revealed that the Student Loan Scheme will commence by January, 2024.

This was disclosed by the Presidency via a post on its verified X handle (formerly known as Twitter) on Monday.

It wrote: “By January 2024, the new student loan programme must commence.”

The post followed the disclosure by President Tinubu while speaking at the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) conference in Abuja on Monday.

The Student Loan Bill, sponsored by the Speaker of the 9th House of Representatives and current Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, provides for interest-free loans to indigent Nigerian students.

On June 14, 2023, the federal government said it was putting all necessary measures in place to ensure the student loan scheme begins between September and October 2023. Since then, nothing has been heard about the scheme.

LEADERSHIP reports that the September 2023 date announced for the take-off of the Student Loan Scheme is set to expire without the portal being opened for the students to commence applications.

The permanent secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Andrew David Adejo, while speaking to journalists in Abuja, said President Tinubu had approved a committee made up of ministries and agencies to see to the realisation of the Students Loan Bill.

However, with a few days to go and without any action in that regard, students across the country are pressuring the government to stop delaying the implementation of the loan but go ahead and open a portal for application.

The law provides easy access to higher education for indigent Nigerians through interest-free loans from the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, the permanent secretary had said.