• Recovery begins 2 years after NYSC
The Federal Government has set the month of March for a definite opening of the Nigeria Education Loan Fund (NELFund) portal for eligible students.
Dr Akintunde Sawyerr, execute secretary of NELFund, who disclosed this, urged eligible students to register to access the fund.
President Bola Tinubu on June 12, 2023, signed the Access to Higher Education Bill into law to enable indigent student access interest-free loan to pursue their education in any Nigerian tertiary institutions.
The scheme was slated to commence between September and October 2023, but because of unforeseen circumstances, there was a revised timeline to January.
The scheme was slated to commence between September and October 2023, but because of unforeseen circumstances, there was a revised timeline to January and now to March. He said the scheme was designed for the future leaders and all hands must be on deck to ensure its successful take-off.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) had dismissed the Students Loan Act shortly after it was signed by the President.
Its National President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, had said that “with over one million students in Nigerian public universities, the loan scheme falls short of providing adequate tuition coverage.’’
Osodeke had also said that the conditions for the loan were “not practicable”, adding that more than 90 per cent of students won’t meet the “stringent requirements’’ to access and repay the loan.
But giving reasons for the delay in starting the scheme as earlier scheduled, Sawyerr explained that the process is technically driven and necessary measures needed to be put in place for proper execution.
“The take-off date is this month (March) and the reason for the delay is that we are trying to get it right. This is not a political programme where we say, oh! we are just going to do it, it doesn’t matter how it works.
“This is a programme that will probably run beyond me as a human being, not even as a Secretary. This is something that we want to run adequately, so we have to get it right,’’ he said.
Sawyerr reiterated President Tinubu’s commitment to ensure that lack of finance did not constitute a reason for any student in Nigeria to halt education at a tertiary level.
According to him, the scheme is designed for indigent Nigerian students in tertiary institutions and applications will be done online.
“We have decided that all applicants should be able to access this scheme regardless of where they are, who they are and who they know.
“We want this to be a process that is fair to all and we will advertise the portal widely so that applicants will be able to go to the website to fill series of forms and answer certain questions.
“Based on the data they input and their answers to the questions, the system will be able to determine appropriately, whether they are eligible to apply or not.” Sawyerr said recovery process from beneficiaries would commence two years after the National Youth Service Scheme(NYSC).
He said the reason for the two-year grace after NYSC was to afford the beneficiaries enough time to get a job and be stable before the repayment.
“The law provides that for students who go into paid-employment, repayment will be two years after NYSC, but, that does not mean that they cannot pay back before that time.
“However, if they don’t have a job two years after NYSC, we cannot compel them to pay. Where are they going to get the money from? “
“So, we will help them and wait for them to be able to pay.
“There will be a register of those who have taken the loan and employers will have access to that register and see who has a loan.
“Once they see who has a loan, when they are employing the individual, they will be obliged through the payroll system to refund 10 per cent of the earnings of that individual back to the fund,’’ he said.
Sawyer said the modalities of how the money would be rooted were still being worked out, but the employer would be obliged to make those deductions for as long as that person is at work.
“If they are yet to secure employment or if they lose their jobs they are not obliged to pay. We are not trying to turn applicants into criminals ,we are trying to help Nigerians who need better education to get it so that they can improve their lives and the country as a whole can see improvement in its social-economic development,’’ he said.
For those who might want to deliberately circumvent the process of repayment, Sawyerr said there must be a way the law will catch up with them.
He said this could be achieved whenever the defaulters have a need to access loans or any facilities from commercial banks.