President Bola Tinubu is scheduled to launch the National Student Loan Programme on Thursday, March 14, 2024. The Student Loan Scheme, aimed at reducing financial burdens for Nigerian families and young people, was announced by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Ajuri Ngelale, during an interview on TVC’s Politics on Sunday.
The scheme, a fulfillment of one of Tinubu’s campaign promises to reform education funding, was initially slated to begin in September but faced delays. Tinubu insisted on its commencement in January 2024 during the 29th session of the annual Nigeria Economic Summit in Abuja on October 23, 2023.
The Access to Higher Education Act, 2023, signed by Tinubu on June 12, 2023, established the Student Loan Law and the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, which will manage all loan requests, grants, disbursement, and recovery.
The delay in the scheme’s launch, initially set for February 21, was due to the expansion of the Fund’s mandate to include loans for skills development, as directed by Tinubu. Dr Akintunde Sawyerr, Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Education Loan Fund, explained that the delay was necessary to perfect the backend systems powering the application process, as the scheme is entirely technologically driven.
