LAGOS, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA)-The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has confirmed that the newly introduced student loan scheme does not extend to Nigerian students studying abroad.
On Friday, the Managing Director of NELFUND, Akintunde Sawyerr, revealed this detail.
President Bola Tinubu signed the Access to Higher Education Act, 2023 into law on June 12, with the aim of offering interest-free loans to financially disadvantaged students enrolled in Nigerian tertiary institutions.
This initiative aligns with Tinubu’s commitment to bolster education funding. a member of the former Presidential Strategy Team, Dele Alake, emphasized the legislation’s importance in improving access to education.
On January 22, after a briefing from NELFUND led by Minister of State for Education, Dr. Yusuf Sununu, the President directed the Fund to offer interest-free loans to students engaging in skill-development programs.
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Despite these delays, the scheme has garnered considerable interest, with 30,000 students successfully registering and over 60,000 individuals signing up on the NELFUND website.
However, on May 22, 2024, a group of Nigerian students at Teesside University faced expulsion from their courses and were instructed to leave the United Kingdom due to challenges in meeting their tuition fees on time, according to a BBC.
The students attributed the devaluation of the naira as a major obstacle to fulfilling their financial commitments, resulting in a violation of their visa sponsorship terms.
However, Sawyerr clarified that the loan scheme was strictly intended for students studying within Nigeria.
“Nigerians in Diaspora cannot benefit from the student loan. Nigerians schooling in the country are those we want to help. The law does not allow the FG to give loans to Nigerians studying abroad,” he stated.
The National Mobilisation Officer of the Education Rights Campaign, Adaramoye Lenin criticized the exclusion of Nigerian students in foreign institutions from the newly introduced student loan scheme.
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He asserted that this exclusion underscores the scheme’s failure to address the educational needs of Nigerian students adequately.
Lenin argued that the government was using the loan scheme to avoid properly funding public education, thereby transferring the financial responsibility onto students.