The Managing Director of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, Akintunde Sawyerr has said that the student loans scheme will be made available to students of state universities in the next three weeks.
The MD made this known during an ongoing press briefing in Abuja on Thursday.
Sawyerr also noted that over 90% of federal institutions have submitted the list of students, noting that only two federal universities and two federal polytechnics are yet to do so.
He noted that no fewer than 60,000 persons have visited the website of the student loan fund since its launch.
On June 12, 2023, President Bola Tinubu signed the Access to Higher Education Act, 2023 into law to enable indigent students to access interest-free loans for their educational pursuits in any Nigerian tertiary institution.
The Act, popularly known as the Students Loan Law, also established the Nigerian Education Loan Fund to process all loan requests, grants, disbursement, and recovery.
Although the government initially announced that the scheme would be launched in September, it suffered several delays leading to an indefinite postponement in early March.
The Presidency had linked the delay to Tinubu’s directive to expand the scheme to include loans for vocational skills.
After receiving a briefing from the NELFUND team led by the Minister of State for Education, Dr Yusuf Sununu, on January 22, the President directed the Fund to extend interest-free loans to Nigerian students interested in skill-development programmes.
