President Bola Ahmed Tinubu signs student loan bill into law.
The Student Loans (Access to Higher Education) Act (Repeal and Re-Enactment) Bill, 2024 has been signed into law by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
This follows independent reviews of the Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFund report by the Senate and the House of Representatives.
The bill, sponsored by Senator Bamidele Opeyemi of Ekiti State’s Ekiti Central Senatorial District, aims to address issues with the Nigerian Education Loan Fund’s management structure, applicant eligibility requirements, loan purposes, funding sources, and disbursement and repayment procedures in order to improve the scheme’s execution.
The measure will assist in removing the current law’s income-based qualifying requirement, which required candidates or their families to have an annual income of less than N500,000. The Bill further expands eligibility, including students from government-approved vocational schools and higher institutions created by the federal government or state to apply, subject to the Fund determining the precise requirements.
Additionally, the new Bill allows applicants to request loans to cover other institutional expenditures and maintenance allowances, in contrast to the 2023 Act, which restricted loan applications to tuition prices alone.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu signs student loan bill into law.
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