The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has confirmed that Nigerian students studying abroad are ineligible for the newly introduced student loan scheme. This announcement was made by NELFUND’s Managing Director, Akintunde Sawyerr, on Friday.
The Access to Higher Education Act, 2023, signed into law by President Bola Tinubu on June 12, aims to provide interest-free loans to indigent students attending Nigerian tertiary institutions. This initiative aligns with Tinubu’s campaign promise to enhance education funding. Dele Alake, a former member of the Presidential Strategy Team, emphasized the importance of this legislation in making education more accessible.
During a January 22 briefing led by the Minister of State for Education, Dr. Yusuf Sununu, President Tinubu directed NELFUND to extend interest-free loans to students pursuing skill-development programs. Despite initial delays, the scheme has garnered significant interest, with 30,000 students successfully registering and over 60,000 individuals signing up on the NELFUND website.
However, on May 22, 2024, a group of Nigerian students at Teesside University were expelled and ordered to leave the United Kingdom due to difficulties in paying their tuition fees on time, as reported by the BBC. The students cited the devaluation of the naira as a major barrier to meeting their financial obligations, resulting in a breach of their visa sponsorship requirements.
Addressing this issue, Sawyerr clarified that the loan scheme is exclusively for students studying within Nigeria. “Nigerians in Diaspora cannot benefit from the student loan. Nigerians schooling in the country are those we want to help. The law does not allow the FG to give loans to Nigerians studying abroad,” he stated.
Criticizing the exclusion of Nigerian students in foreign institutions, Adaramoye Lenin, National Mobilisation Officer of the Education Rights Campaign, argued that the scheme’s limitations highlight its inadequacy in addressing the educational needs of Nigerian students. He contended that the government is using the loan scheme to avoid properly funding public education, thereby shifting the financial burden onto students.
