President Tinubu signs Student Loan Bill into law, June 12, 2023.
President Tinubu has signed Student Loan Bill into law.
Newsone reports that Nigeria”s President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on Monday, June 12, 2023, student loan bill into law at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
This online news platform understands that the bill was sponsored by Femi Gbajabiamila, immediate-past speaker of the House of Representatives and current Chief of Staff to the President.
In November 2022, the legislation, which seeks to provide financial assistance to Nigerian students in tertiary institutions, was passed by the national assembly but assented to by Tinubu on Monday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, as part of measures to boost educational access and delivery at the tertiary level.
Newsone Nigeria reports that 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.