Tinubu writes Senate, demands reenactment of students loan act   

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has written to the Senate, demanding a repeal and reenactment of the students loan act.

Tinubu made the demand in a letter dated March 14, 2024, addressed to the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio and read on the floor of the Senate during plenary on Thursday.

This is coming a day after the federal government announced that the commencement of the student loan scheme had been temporarily suspended.

The letter read in part, “Pursuant to Section 58, (2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (As amended), I forward, herewith, the Student Loan (Access to Higher Education), (Repeal and Re-enactment Bill, 2024) for the kind consideration of the Senate.

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“The Student Loan (Access to Higher Education, (Repeal and Re-Enactment Bill, 2024), seeks to enhance the implementation of the Higher Education Loan Scheme by addressing challenges related to the management structure of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELF), applicant eligibility requirements, loan purpose, funding sources and disbursement and repayment procedures.”

Speaking on Tinubu’s demand, the Deputy Senate President, Jibrin Barau, said the Senate would support Tinubu to succeed.

He said, “Mr President signed the bill as soon as he assumed office and now he is bringing back the principal Act to be amended so that he will get it tailored in a fashion that will allow the execution of his ideas or thinking of how it will help in giving that opportunity to indigent students who want to be educated but don’t have the wherewithal to execute it.

“It is to allow them to finance their education and be educated. Now, to advance the educational development of this country, to help advance our tertiary educational system, we need to commend the President for that. He has done very well.

“No other President has shown a passion to help advance our tertiary educational system like President Tinubu. Let us give him all the necessary encouragement to make sure that this bill succeeds and he implements it. We commend him for continuing on this trajectory until he takes our tertiary educational system to the next stage.”

Earlier, Leader of the Senate, Opeyemi Bamidele (APC, Ekiti Central) in a lead debate said the objective of the bill is to provide loans to qualified Nigerians to pay tuition, charges and upkeep during their course of study in approved tertiary education institutions and vocational and skills acquisition institutions in Nigeria.