Proposed Nigerian Education Bank, interest-free student loans to improve access

A bill seeking to make the Federal Government provide loans to enable students pursue tertiary education scaled through second reading on the floor of the House of Representatives, recently.  The bill among other things proposed the establishment of Nigerian Education Bank and interest-free loans to students.

A students’ loan scheme may empower financially disadvantaged students, narrow the widening skills gap and check rising social inequality, stakeholders say.

According to Femi Gbajabiamila, sponsor of the bill and member of the House of Representatives, the loans should be interest-free because ‘Nigeria is blessed with abundant natural resources to tap from and encourage quality education for future generations’. In his remark Yakubu Dogara, speaker of the House of Representatives commended members for their contributions and referred the bill to the Committee on Tertiary Education and Services for further legislative actions.

“My parents value education. However they are not able to afford given their meagre income. My father is factory work, a welder my mother is a petty trader. I barely made it through my National Diploma (ND), selling odds and ends to pay my school fees. I just arrived here in Ajegunle, Lagos to hustle and save some money for my Higher National Diploma (HND), recounted 20 year old, bar attendant, Isioma Izuegbu.

Unlike Nigeria, in Ghana, there is the Students Loan Trust Fund (SLTF), which lends to students at rates below those offered by commercial banks.

Georgina Tindan, a Computer Science student at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana, said,  “I am a proud beneficiary of the Students Loan Trust Fund. It provided me the opportunity to be more conscious and responsible for my studies rather than going to and fro in search for money to cater for my expenses”.

STEPHEN ONYEKWELU