PSULF convener suggests amendments in some areas of Student Loan Law,

By Ekunkonye Junior
Abuja

The convener, Past Students Union Leaders Forum (PSULF), Prince Orji Nwafor – Orizu has identified areas of amendment in the Students Loan Bill which President Ahmed Bola Tinubu recently signed into law.

He came up with the amendments in a press statement he made available to journalists Saturday in Abuja the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Recalled that President Tinubu has on 12 June, 2023 signed the Students Loan Bill into law, thus making it an Act.

The Nigerian Education Loan Fund, established under the law, will be managed and administered by various stakeholders, including the Central Bank of Nigeria and commercial banks.

Appreciating Mr President for signing the bill into law, which he noted was there when he was the president, National Association of Nigerian Students (NANs), as well as the leader of a delegation to the World Youths and Students Festival in Havanna, Cuba in 1977, he said that the law can be amended, if its purpose can be achieved.

He said: “The promulgation of the Act is commendable and acceptable to all stakeholders in education, but I am of the opinion that there is a need for an amendment in some areas like every other law needs in critical area.”

Among the areas he suggested for amendments were in the areas of eligibility for the loan, where he said that question for eligibility should be left to all students of tertiary institutions, without reference to their parents’ incomes. Reasoning that size of families defer, he explained that a man with seven children has more responsibilities in paying fees than the one with two children.
Another one was that, owing to family arrangements, including divorces, separations, etc, a student, according to him may have a rich parent who isn’t responsible for his/her fees.

Suggesting that the qualification for eligibility should be the student, being a student and no more, the convener again suggested that the issue of repayment should be visited, to ensure compliance with practical and profitable terms.

To this, he suggested that the provision of repayment of the loan, after two years of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), should have a proviso of its repayment, after two years of NYSC, or as soon as the student is employed, or engaged in entrepreneurship income, whichever comes first.

While suggesting further that the Students Loan Board (SLB) be made up of 36 commissioners from each state and one from the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), to take charge of affairs of states and the FCT, as well as warning against politicising of the SLB or truncating it by bureaucracy, or quota system, he added that there be a national board to control the scheme and state commissioners and offices.