The National Assembly, on Wednesday, passed the Students Loans (Access to Higher Education) Act (Repeal and Re-Enactment) Bill, 2024.
For eight months since his inauguration, President Bola Tinubu, who campaigned on providing loans to students, struggled to implement the law with several missed deadlines.
However, President Tinubu on Thursday forwarded the bill to the National Assembly seeking a repeal and re-enactment of the bill.
The bill seeks to address the challenges relating to the management structure of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELF), applicant eligibility requirements, loan purpose, funding sources and disbursement and repayment procedures, the president specified in a letter addressed to the National Assembly.
- Inclusion of all students
The existing Act provides that the loan is for payment of tuition fees and nothing more. According to the letter sent by the President, such provision would prevent federal university students from accessing the loan because they don’t pay tuition.
Meanwhile, the proposed bill says the fund can “provide loans to qualified Nigerians for tuition, fees, charges, and upkeep during their studies in approved tertiary education institutions and vocational and skills acquisition institutions in Nigeria.”
- Removing Guarantor
The bill by the President is seeking to remove some of the conditions to qualify students for the loan.
Under this provision, the child of a person who earns N45,000 a month is disqualified from applying for this loan.
- Children of loan defaulters banned from accessing loan
In the President’s proposed Act, student applicants can no longer be disqualified based on their parent’s loan history.
- Payment to commence two years after work
The Fund shall not initiate loan recovery efforts until two years after the completion of the National Youth Service programme.
In the letter, the president indicated that beneficiaries of the Fund shall begin repayment as soon as they are employed in any capacity.
- Transfer of operational powers from the CBN governor
In the proposed bill, the CBN governor will be stripped of the implementation powers of the fund. The implementation powers will exerted by the Managing Director of the Fund.
- Loan forgiveness on event of death
Significantly, in the proposed bill, the loan ends with the death of a beneficiary.
According to the President, the bill “makes provision for loan forgiveness in the event of death or acts of God causing inability to repay.”