As part of fulfilment of his campaign promises, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has signed the 2023 Student Loan Act into law.
President Tinubu assented to the bill at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Monday after it was passed by the 9th Assembly as part of measures to boost educational access and delivery at the tertiary level.
The Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Education, Andrew Adejo, and Dele Alake, a senior aide to the President, both explained that the act will ensure indigent students access the loans to further their education.
According to Alake, the loan initiative was part of what Tinubu promised during his electioneering campaigns.
“Today, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has just signed the Student Loan Act. This is just in fulfilment of his promise during the electioneering campaigns, where he promised that students would access loans to go to school,” he said.
On his part, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education noted that the Federal Scholarship Board, which already exists, was starved of funds and needed an enabling act to work properly, but now that an enabling act is in place, the processes for hitch-free access to education loans will be much easier.
Five things you need to know about the 2023 Students Loan Act.
Following President Tinubu’s passing into law of the 2023 students loan Act, here are five things you should know about the law which is aimee at boosting the Nigerian education sector:
1. The Act provides an interest-free loan for indigent students in which beneficiaries will only pay back the exact amount they collect.
2. The Act offers loans for poor students seeking higher education in public universities, polytechnics and colleges of education in the country.
3. The Act enables all indigent students to have equal rights to access the loan without any form of discrimination arising from gender, religion, tribe, position or disability of any kind.
4. The loan shall be accessible to only indigent students studying within Nigeria and it’s for the payment of tuition fees alone.
5. The Act states that there shall be the creation of a Nigerian Education Bank with the aim to offer education for all Nigerians in matters pertaining to loans.
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