August 15, (THEWILL) – The Federal Government has said implementation of the Students Loans scheme would commence during the 2023/2024 academic session.
Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, David Adejo, made this known on Tuesday, during a meeting with the House of Representatives Committee on Education.
Adejo said President Bola Tinubu has directed the completion of necessary work on the modalities for the students’ loan implementation, with a target start date in September 2023.
Part of the modalities, Adejo said, is the establishment of a coordinating committee, chaired by the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila.
The Committee also has the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Federal Budget Office, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Finance, and others as members.
Adejo, who faulted reports that the signing of the Students Loan Act had caused several federal universities to increase charges, maintained that no federal university in the country was allowed to collect tuition fees from students.
“What they collect is charges to cover the cost of accommodation, ICT, and power, among others. It is the Governing Councils of the Universities that have the power to approve such charges for them.
“The only university that increased charges after the signing of the student loans act is the University of Lagos. They came to the Ministry with a proposal to Increase their charges because all Governing Councils were dissolved and we gave them approval.
“Immediately that was done, there was a resolution from the House stopping the increase of fees and the President also gave a directive stopping any increase in fees and that is where it is, even though several others have brought their proposal.
“For example, we had to bail out Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria with about N1 billion to pay its electricity bill. The school just resumed academic sessions because they were in darkness.
“They were supposed to build theatres and we told them, you cannot build theatre when you are in the dark because you need power to operate.”
