By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Implementation of the recently signed students’ loan initiative by the Nigerian Government will commence in January 2024, President Bola Tinubu has announced.
The students’ loan bill was signed into law on June 12 this year, a day marking the country’s Democracy Day. The move is in fulfilment of a promise he made during his campaign.
The Nigerian leader further assures students in the country that the era of incessant strikes will be a thing of the past.
“By January 2024, the new student loan must commence. To the future of our children and students, we are saying no more strikes,” Tinubu said in Abuja on Monday during the National Economic Summit 2023.
The bill, 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.
The assurance on Monday comes days after the President announced a waive of the ‘no-work, no pay policy’ imposed by the previous administration on members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the umbrella body of varsity lecturers.
They embarked on an eight-month strike to press home their demands including poor funding of schools, a period which the immediate past government vowed not to pay.
Under the waiver, President Tinubu accepted to pay for four, out of the eight months refused payment.
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.
