The Bola Tinubu-led administration has decided to postpone the Nigerian Students Loan Scheme’s inauguration indefinitely, just 48 hours before it was scheduled to begin.
In an interview with AriseTV on Tuesday, Akintunde Sawyer, the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), made this claim.
According to Sawyer, the loan, which was officially scheduled to debut on Thursday, has been rescheduled due to some launch-related modifications.
I’m afraid I won’t be able to commit to a particular date. To make sure that no one is taken by surprise, we are sort of waiting for everyone to get in line before we implement this in a meaningful, thorough, healthy, and sustainable manner.
A measure to establish the Students Loan Fund (SLF), which would provide interest-free loans to Nigerians for higher education, was signed into law by President Tinubu in June 2023.
The measure was sponsored by Femi Gbajabiamila, a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, and it was scheduled to begin in September or October of 2023.
While this was going on, Tinubu announced that the program will start in January 2024, having missed the October deadline.
Speaking to reporters during the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting in January, Yusuf Sununu, the Minister of State for Education, confirmed that all necessary arrangements had been made for the scheme to launch, including the completion of technical plans to enable the website for the Student Loan Scheme.
During their visit to the State House, President Tinubu gave the leaders of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) an assurance that the program would start as soon as its enlargement to include additional aspects, such vocational courses, was completed.