President Bola Tinubu’s appendage of his signature to the student loan scheme law may be significant as a prelude to the enjoyment of the scheme by indigent students, but the development has not removed the disappointment of many Nigerians on the slow pace of the arrangement. There is little consolation that the scheme, which should have taken off last September, is yet to fully go on stream despite the president’s signing of the bill. Moreover, many students, who saw the scheme as the only hope to realise their educational dreams, are yet to commence benefiting from it. The government must, therefore, show more seriousness in its implementation of the loan scheme to win the confidence of Nigerians who are already disillusioned. After all, the scheme is a major promise by Tinubu during his electioneering campaign. He must show beyond verbal assurance that he intends to keep his promise.
The executive bill, titled: “A Bill for an Act to Repeal the Students Loans (Access to Higher Education) Act, 2023 and Enact the Student Loans (Access to Higher Education) Bill, 2004 to Establish the Nigerian Education Loan Fund as a body corporate to receive, manage and invest funds to provide loans to Nigerians for higher education, vocational training and skills acquisition and for related matters”, was signed by Tinubu in the presence of the leadership of the National Assembly, ministers and major stakeholders of Education. This followed separate considerations by both the Senate and the House of Representatives of the report of the Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFund.
Before now, the launch of the scheme had suffered several postponements that portrayed the government as unserious about the initiative, always putting the cart before the horse. Such a scheme that is very crucial to the future of the young ones, concerning their educational advancement, should not have been allowed to suffer this avoidable delay. Many potential beneficiaries are already demoralised and their academic ambition put on hold as their parents, due to the high cost of living in the country, could no longer sponsor them in school.
The government’s claim that the launching was postponed because of the need to fine-tune the scheme and expand its benefits to more needy students is plausible, but showed a lack of due diligence on its path, given the huge publicity that the President had made on it. Relevant details about the loan ought to have been perfected before the announcement was made. While it is good to firm up the programme, the government does not have all the time in the world to do that. To show that it is serious about the policy and committed to implementing it, Tinubu-led administration should quickly perfect every aspect and launch it for many youths to benefit and be able to achieve their desired future.
The announcement of the scheme in 2023 by Tinubu was a welcome development not only because the benefiting poor students would be able to overcome the most worrisome hurdle to their educational advancement, which is finance, but also because the programme was scheduled to take off by September to October of the 2023/2024 academic session.
To show his commitment to the spirit and letters of the new law, Tinubu raised a committee made up of ministries and agencies to work out the modalities for the disbursement of the loans. It was envisaged that the committee would have finished its job and every necessary thing put in place before the planned take-off time. Higher institutions of learning have admitted new students, many of whom have managed to start studying for their courses while a lot of the old students and their parents struggle to get money to pay for fees that have even been increased in many schools amid the economic hardship in the country.
After missing the September/October take-off time, the government said the programme would begin in January 2024, which did not come to pass. What was heard about it from the government quarters on January 22, 2024, was how students would access the money and that the programme had been widened to accommodate young Nigerians who are interested in acquiring skills outside tertiary institutions.
The Executive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of the Students Loan Board, Dr Akintunde Sawyyer, said the process would be seamless, as there would be no human contact because everything would be automated. He further explained that the funds for successful students, which would be sourced from education tax, would be transferred directly to the schools’ account.
Again recently, the hope of early implementation of the scheme, which was rescheduled for launch on March 14, 2024, was dashed when it was postponed barely 48 hours before the event. The reason given by Sawyer was that some corrections 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.
Speaking in Abuja after he signed the bill, Tinubu said no Nigerian, regardless of their background, will be excluded from obtaining quality education. “This is to ensure that no one, no matter how poor their background is, is excluded from quality education and opportunity to build their future,”
The practice of celebrating the announcement of policies, programmes and projects but foot-dragging when it comes to implementation or execution does not portray the country in a good light. It is like jumping into the river before learning how to swim, making the person vulnerable to being drowned. This is most probably one of the reasons many brilliantly conceived government policies and programmes suffer somersault, and the nation is today littered with abandoned projects. In the case of the student loan, the government obviously did not do its homework well, else it would not be fine-tuning in March 2024, a scheme meant to be effective in September/October 2023.
But the loan scheme must not suffer the same treatment as did many government programmes, which were not well thought out before being proclaimed. Millions of poor students, who have the potential to lift the country to higher heights, are waiting for it to commence. How soon the current administration concludes work on the scheme and finally begins its implementation will show the importance that Tinubu places on human capital development and the future of the Nigerian youth.
