The Nigerian Government on Monday, announced that the Student Loan Scheme would be funded through the Education Tax Fund, under the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).
According to FIRS Chairman, Zacch Adedeji, while briefing State House Correspondents alongside the Executive Secretary of the Board, Dr Akintunde Sawyerr, at the Presidential Villa, in Abuja, the deployment of the Education Tax Fund in the scheme is one of the ways the government can be accountable to taxpayers in the country.
Sawyerr, in his remarks, also assured that the process for applying for the loan would be devoid of human intervention as every action would be undertaken on an App specifically designed for the purpose, adding that the government was keen to ensure that young Nigerians do not fail to acquire tertiary education just because of lack of funds to continue their studies.
According to him, the implementation of the student loan scheme would enable Nigerians to pick a career trajectory of their choice rather than being forced to do something else because they were unable to acquire requisite education due to lack of funds, while affirming that the loan would help to stem the dangerous journeys undertaken by Nigerian youths across the Sahel to Europe in search of a better life.
He further disclosed that school fees for successful applicants would be transferred directly to their institutions, noting that while every Nigerian was eligible to apply for the loan, only the most needy would be supported.
Sawyerr said, “It’s a pleasure to be here today to brief you on the impending launch of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, which is the bedrock that will operationalize the student loan scheme in Nigeria. It’s a great opportunity to help solve an age-old problem that has been on in this dear nation of ours for quite some time.
“There are many, many people with great capacity and with the desire to improve their education. And usually the place where that falls down is when they get into the tertiary base. At that point they really have a number of options, either to go into the world of work with qualifications that are not necessarily optimal for them or to find ways of funding that tertiary space.
“When I say tertiary, some of it is academic. So university education is generally regarded as academic but this programme seeks to provide opportunities for Nigerian students who want to go into the academic side and get a university degree or perhaps want to go into the technical side and go and acquire some vocational skills and some vocational qualifications which is always needed in society, and also in the teacher training space. Because you know, without teachers, really none of us are going very far. We have to learn from others and we have to have teachers.
“So, this is a great opportunity for that applicant, and they are the ones that are at the center of all of this. This act, effectively 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, lack of funding.”
He added, “I want to say to you that this has been done with a lot of thought. So in application and in applying for this loan, there is zero human intervention. In other words, there is an app. The applicant will go on to a portal, they will engage with that app.
“They will have to put in certain pieces of information which made them eligible, that is their JAMB number, and of course the tie-in to their date of birth. Further pieces of information include things like their national identity number, NIN, which confirms that they are Nigerians.
“This loan scheme is being paid for by Nigerian tax payers. So it’s for Nigerians and the NIN helps verify and qualify them as such.
“Their BVN is needed for financial inclusion because this scheme will at some point be able to empower students. So we need to know they have bank accounts. We need to know where their accounts are, to be able to access those accounts.
“It will also have their matric number, admission number so that we can firmly establishment which institution they are going because one of the key elements of this is that once we’ve received applications and those applications are approved, the fees or the tuition requirements in terms of financials will be transferred directly to the institution.
“That in itself has benefits for the institution. Many many students are struggling to pay their fees, their parents are struggling to pay their fees. There’s a very high dropout rate. So it’s one thing to get into the tertiary institution. It’s another thing to stay there for four years or for three years. This scheme seeks to help people access and remain until they qualify or graduate.”
Explaining further, Adedeji said, “This is in fulfillment 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 because the essence of Education Tax is to consolidate and restore education integrity and quality.
“And in fulfilling that part of the Act, so, that is why Education Tax Fund is one of the sources of funding, by God’s grace, that we’ll use actually to execute this laudable programme.”
Back story:
The Informant247 reports that the Nigerian President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu had on june 12, signed the Student Loan Bill into law.
Dele Alake, an aide to the president disclosed this to State House Correspondents, saying the bill will enable Nigerian students to access loans at interest-free rates.
Reps scrap N5bn presidential yacht budget, increase student loan to N10bn
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives, on Thursday, November 2, scrapped the budgetary allocation, following public outcry over the allocation of N5.095 billion for the purchase of a presidential yacht in the 2023 supplementary budget.
According to Abubakar Bichi, the Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, in an interview with newsmen, the budgetary allocation for student loans was also increased from five billion to N10 billion, adding that the committee also increased the budgetary allocation of the Ministry of Defence from N 476 billion to N546 billion.
Bichi furthered that the minimum wage for workers was considered and approved for onward transmission to the executive while promising proper legislative oversight to ensure 100 per cent implementation.
The Informant247 reports that in the supplementary budget sent to the National Assembly by the President, the Federal Government had allocated N5 billion to purchase a presidential yacht.
The proposed sum was under the capital expenditure of the Nigerian Navy’s budget.
According to the breakdown, the Navy will require N62.8 billion for its operations, with recurrent expenditure and capital expenditure gulping N20.4 billion and N42.3 billion, respectively
But Bichi said the five billion naira for the presidential yacht has been yanked off from the budget.
He said: “Actually We have submitted our reports to the House and after careful consideration, the House has approved our submissions and the breakdown is as follows:
“As you know, the budget is about N2.1 trillion and the Ministry of Defence has about N456bn but currently the Ministry of Defence has the largest share because we know how important our security is. As you are aware, we had interactions with them yesterday. Currently, we have increased their budget from N456 billion to N546,209,099,671 billion.
“For Police formation and command, we gave them N50bn while the FCT has about N100bn. You know FCT is very important to us, so we want to make sure that FCT can compete with any state in the world. That is why we gave them N100bn.
“On the Office of National Security, their initial budget was N27bn but currently we have increased it to N50bn. For the state house, their initial budget was N28bn and we maintained that.
“On Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, you know how important that ministry is. We maintained their initial figure of N200bn as well. For the Ministry of Housing, you know we have a serious housing deficit in the country and Mr President’s agenda, he wants to build as much as he can, so we have approved N100bn for housing.
“Service-wide votes initially was N615 but currently we reduced to N515bn.
“For INEC, initially their budget was N18bn, and yesterday we had an interaction with the INEC Chairman and he convinced us with his submissions and we maintained their N18bn.
“So far, we have approved N2,176,791,286,33. We will continue to support the government so we can deliver democracy.
On the presidential yacht, Bichi said: “Actually, as far we are concerned, we don’t have that anymore. We have increased the student loan.
“Initially, student loan was N5bn in the budget but we have increased it by N5bn so that our students can access that facility for them to go to school. We don’t have the yacht anymore in budget.”
He added: “Our members, especially those standing committees, oversight those projects and ensure the money is used judiciously. From now till three months, we are going to call them and ask them what they have done with the money.”
FG announces commencement of student loan in January
Furthermore, Dr Yusuf Tanko Sununu, the Minister of State for Education, Dr Yusuf Tanko Sununu, on Thursday, while appearing on Arise TV, on December 7, said the Student Loan Scheme approved by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in June is on track to commence in January 2024.
It would be recalled that the Federal Government, in the 2024 budget appropriation, earmarked N50bn to implement its student loan scheme.
In response to questions regarding the status of the student loan programme set to begin in January 2024, he said, “I want to tell you that we are on track. The committee is working day in and day out.
“The whole thing is going to be online, not through physical access. A website that will make for easy access is being developed.”
“We want trust in governance, and trust must have a timeline. So it may take from January 1st to January 31st, but as much as possible, we will ensure that by the 31st of January, students can access it.”
“If for any reason we cannot deliver, we will explain. We know that, as far as student loans are concerned, we are being tracked by multinational, international and local bodies, even the students and parents. And I assure you that by the political will and trajectory of Mr President, that is achievable.”
President Tinubu had in November, at the 29th National Economic Summit, emphasised the viability of the student loan scheme as a means of financing tertiary education and expanding the public’s accessibility to higher learning.
He stated, “By January 2024, the new student loan programme must commence. To the future of our children and students, we are saying no more strikes.
“To address long-standing issues in the education sector, a more sustainable model of funding tertiary education will be implemented, including the Student Loan Scheme scheduled to become operational by January 2024.”