Tinubu: Students Loan Scheme to Incorporate Those Seeking Skills Devt

•FG reveals programme will be fully automated

•Financing to come from education tax fund, says FIRS

Deji Elumoye in Abuja

President Bola Tinubu has directed the management of the Nigeria Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) to expand its focus area by extending interest-free loans to Nigerian students interested in skills development programmes.

The president issued the directive yesterday at the State House, Abuja, after receiving a briefing from the Executive Secretary of NELFUND, Mr Akintunde Sawyerr on the build-up to the launch of the programme later in the month.

 Tinubu said it was important for the scheme to accommodate those who may not want to pursue university education, noting that skills acquisition remains as important as obtaining undergraduate and graduate academic qualifications.

He said: “This is not an exclusive programme. It is catering to all of our young people. Young Nigerians are gifted in different areas. This is not only for those who want to be doctors, lawyers, and accountants.

“ It is also for those who aspire to use their skilled and trained hands to build our nation. In accordance with this, I have instructed NELFUND to explore all opportunities to ‘inculcate’ skills development programmes because not everybody wants to go through a full university education.”

He emphasised the need for equity and inclusivity in the management of the programme saying that no matter how economically challenged, accredited and qualified students must have access to the loan to advance their education in higher institutions.

“There is no compromise in our commitment to the disadvantaged citizens of this nation,” he added.

Earlier in his presentation to the president, Executive Secretary of the Fund, Sawyerr, said the loan application process will be technology-driven, limiting human interface and eliminating any possibility of maladministration in the programme.

“By design, this is a perpetual programme and will not terminate. The funds, earmarked for bona-fide Nigerian students, will be disbursed directly to the institutions in the initial phase through electronic transfer.

“Our students will be catered to in a way that bypasses human interference through the full utilisation of available technological platforms, in adherence to the president’s stated objectives,” he assured.

He also said NELFUND had developed a robust risk-mitigation mechanism to address potential risks that may arise from the programme.

Speaking with newsmen after the presentation, Sawyerr assured that there will be zero human intervention in the application and processing of the loan by applicants.

According to him, a specified portal has been dedicated to the scheme to eliminate human intrusion. He added that the loans Act seeks to bridge the gap between the desire to study and the capacity of students to further their education.

“The intention behind it is to ensure that the reason for not being able to go on and further your education at a tertiary level, is not for the lack of finance. This law seeks to bridge the gap between the desire to study and the capacity to go further.

“It seeks to bridge that gap that is created by lack of finance and lack of funding. So, this is a great opportunity for those applicants, and they are the ones that are at the centre of all of this,” he said.

Commenting on the salient opportunities provided by the student loan Act, Sawyerr explained that the programme prioritises intending students in teacher training programmes and vocational skills.

On the procedure for application, the executive secretary explained that the application will be carried out online through a specified submission link.

He said applicants will have to submit certain information that qualifies them for the loan which include the JAMB registration number, Date of Birth, National Identification Number (NIN) and Biometric Verification Number (BVN), among others.

“Further pieces of information include things like their national identity number, which confirm that they are Nigerians and that this loan scheme is being paid for by Nigerian taxpayers.

“So it’s for Nigerians and the NIN helps verify and qualify them as such. Their BVN is financial inclusion because this scheme in itself will at some point, be able to empower students so we need to know they have bank accounts,” he added.

He reassured that part of the targets of the scheme is to tackle rising cases of migration of Nigerian youths who seek by all means better education in Europe.

Speaking on the funding mechanism of the programme, the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Dr Zacch Adedeji, said funding sources have been made available to ensure the smooth take-off and sustenance of the programme.

“Mr. President is permanently solving the problem of funding for education in Nigeria. By the directive of the president, the Education Tax Fund (ETF) is being reviewed to additionally cater to the needs of our university students across all local government areas in the country as they seek to access vocational and traditional university education. Funding for the programme will be adequately covered,” he said.

He explained that the scheme will make education accessible to all Nigerians at the tertiary level , with the funding coming from the education tax being collected by FIRS.

 “This is in fulfilment of Mr President’s promise that we will make education accessible to all. And while I have to put my own is because of the source of funding.

“This is one of the schemes that we will apply education tax that we will collect. “So, this is a way of being accountable to the taxpayer,” he stressed.