The Federal Government of Nigeria, under the Presidency of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has postponed the launch of the country’s muchmouthed Students Loan Scheme indefinitely.
The sad news came aa Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, Akintunde Sawyer, made this known during an interview with ARISE NEWS on Tuesday 12th March, 2024.
In June 2023, President Bola Tinubu signed a bill to start a Students Loan Fund that would give interest-free loans to Nigerians in pursuance of higher education.
A former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, proposed the bill and it was supposed to start between September and October 2023.
Meanwhile, Tinubu said the programme would begin in January 2024, after missing the October deadline.
Nine months after, the scheme remains crawling as words from the corridor of power keeps posting Nigerians over a claim.of wanting to get it right.
In January, Minister of State for Education, Yusuf Sununu, said at a meeting that preparations for the program were finished. This included making the Student Loan Scheme website and planning how to start the programme.
Also, Tinubu told leaders of the National Association of Nigerian Students that the programme would start once they added more features, like vocational studies.
However, barely 48 hours before the launch, Sawyer said the loan scheme was postponed due to some corrections that were being made around the launch.
“Unfortunately, I won’t be able to commit to a specific date. We are sort of waiting to ensure that all the stakeholders are aligned to make sure that nobody is blindsided, then we can actually roll this out in a meaningful, comprehensive, wholesome and sustainable way,” he said.
