Most Nigerians are no longer enthusiastic about happenings in the country as things are getting harder by the day without visible signs that the government is working to improve the situation on ground for now. Only time will tell. The president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu has told the global community that he has no reason to fail Nigerians this time. In keeping with his promise, an Act to provide for easy access to higher education for Nigerians through an interest free loan from the Nigerian Education Bank was signed into law on June 12, 2023.
However, it is a welcome development that should be allowed to work. On one occasion, the president had also said poverty should not prevent anybody or child, including the daughter or son of a wood or yam seller from attaining higher education to eliminate poverty. It then means that no parent, going forward would have any excuse for not sending his or her ward to school, especially under the current administration. But the question is; How can this loan be accessed, especially when one of the requirements states that the applicant’s family must be one that does not earn more than an annual remuneration of five hundred thousand naira (N500, 000)? The composition of the Education Bank Board is made up of the CBN Governor and others drawn from the Federal Ministries of Education and Finance, respectively. Some of the conditions to access the loan include; beneficiaries providing guarantors for such loan.
The penalty for defaulters after two years of post-National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) is five hundred thousand naira (N500,000), or a two-year jail term. These conditions are not different from the ones obtained in the regular commercial banks; the only exception is that the government loan will be interest free. Stakeholders in the education sector have expressed divergent views since the student’s loan Act was passed. For example, the students kicked against an ASUU representative on the board despite Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, President of ASUU’s support on the contentious school fees increase. As things are in Nigeria at present, education remains the foundation for economic development and speedy resurgence that demands adequate attention from the relevant interest groups.
The gesture of providing interest free loans by the government is one of the best things that could happen to the education sector in Nigeria, at least to encourage and give hope to the children of the poor in the society. However, Nigerians are not unmindful that whenever a scheme of this nature is introduced, some persons in the corridors of power and highly influential usually hijack such gestures to favour their relatives and cronies, leaving the targeted people completely shut out. This should not be the case here. Government, in addition to the conditions attached for obtaining such loans which we consider very stringent, should make efforts to ensure that the people the loans are meant for get them at the end of the day.
Conversely, no parent as it stands has any excuse now for not sending his or her child to school, though the survival of the programme largely depends on the loan repayment by either the parents or the student after graduation. While we commend the government for this initiative and for signing the bill for student’s loan into law, we also urge the government to walk the talk by ensuring that the economy is stimulated and jobs created, so that those who borrowed would be gainfully employed at the end of their studies to enable them pay back in record time.
