Pres. Bola Tinubu
Student loan scheme’ll begin Jan 2024- Tinubu
The implementation of the student loan initiative will commence in January 2024 according to President Bola Tinubu who also assured Nigerian students that the era of incessant strikes will be a thing of the past when he spoke in Abuja at the National Economic Summit 2023 on Monday.
“By January 2024, the new student loan must commence. To the future of our children and students, we are saying no more strikes,” he said.
The President , in celebration of June 12, signed into law the student loan bill, in fulfilment of a promise he made during his campaign.
The bill which was sponsored by the Speaker of the 9th House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, now Chief of Staff to the President, provides easy access to higher education for indigent Nigerians through interest-free loans from the Nigerian Education Loan Fund.
The funds for the programme will be domiciled in the Ministry of Education and will only be accessed by indigent students of tertiary institutions.
Recall that Tinubu had last week waived the ‘no-work, no pay policy’ imposed by the previous administration on members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities .
University lecturers had embarked on an eight-month strike to press home their demands including poor funding of schools.
Tinubu also demanded improvements to the welfare of the legal system and civil service.
The president acknowledged the pain caused by the subsidy effect while pointing out that these reforms will eventually pay off.
“We have felt the pain of these reforms; soon we shall begin to reap the rewards,” he added.
“If you don’t change and plan the welfare of your judiciary and you ask them to be fair — render justice with passion with a hungry stomach. New and affordable homes will also be built at a record pace, I assure you.”
