Students Loan: Institutions to benefit in stages
By Angela Atabo
The Federal Government says beneficiaries of the Students Loan Scheme will be in stages – from federal government owned institutions to state schools, then to private schools and later to vocational skills.
Dr Akintunde Sawyer, Executive Secretary, Nigeria Education Loan Scheme (NELFund), made this known during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Abuja.
He said initially, the scheme was designed for only public schools, but President Bola Tinubu made a pronouncement that he would want it to be extended to private schools and vocational trainings.
Sawyer said that the private institutions would not be covered immediately due to their relatively high school fees.
“This is a process, so we will move from public institutions and to private overtime because we want all Nigerians to benefit.
“Funds are not limitless, so we want to look for those who really need to benefit from it first
“We are also looking closely on how we will support and encourage those in the vocational sector. We will put a process in place for that to happen,” he said.
Sawyer said that the scheme will receive funding from the Federal Inland Revenue Service while they were also expecting support from the Nigeria Immigration Service and Nigeria Customs Service.
He added that some revenues from sale of oil would be ceded into the funding as well as donations from the private sector, well-meaning individuals and organisations.
The Executive Secretary assured that NELFund would be fair to all in the management of the scheme and ensure that that the targeted students benefited.
“Applications will be done online. So, there is no need for us to really open offices anywhere outside of our head office, here in Abuja.
“So, we have decided that we want all applicants to 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,” he said.
Sawyerr said that the application would be strictly for Nigerians and the main targets were the indigent students.
He explained that the technology-based platform would allow students to open an account and have their own user name and password.
According to him, students would have to reapply for the loan every academic session.
“Our intention is to cover 100 per cent of their institutional fees and we are also looking at giving them upkeep money,” he said. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)
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Edited by Rotimi Ijikanmi
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