President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has signed the student loans amendment bill into law at the State House on Wednesday, April 3.

This was announced in a post by Special Assistant to President Tinubu on Social Media, Mr Dada Olusegun.

He wrote, “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has signed the Student Loans Re-enactment Bill into law at the State House.

”The executive bill titled “A Bill for an Act to repeal the Students Loans (Access to Higher Education) Act, 2023 and Enact the Student Loans (Access to Higher Education) Bill, 2004 to Establish the Nigerian Education Loan Fund as a body corporate to receive, manage and invest funds to provide loans to Nigerians for higher education, vocational training and skills acquisition and for related matters was signed at the State House in the Presence of the leadership of the National Assembly, Ministers and major stakeholders of education.”

While, sgining the bill he said ”First of all, I must thank the members of the National Assembly for their expeditious handling of this bill, considering the children of Nigeria that education is the tool to fight against poverty effectively.

We are determined to ensure education is given the proper attention necessary for the country, including skill-development programmes.

This is to ensure that no one no matter how poor their background is, is excluded from quality education and opportunity to build their future.

We are here because we are all educated and we are helped, in the past we’ve seen a lot of our children drop out of colleges and given up the opportunity.

That is no more! The standard and the control is there for you to apply no matter who you are as lang as you are a Nigerian citizen.

Here are 12 things to know about the student loan scheme:

1. Nigeria’s student loan is interest-free!

2. The sum is static with a range of repayment options that are tied to a borrower’s income.

3. The beneficiaries will get a two-year “grace period” after completing the one-year National Youth Service before they are expected to commence repayment of the loan.

4. The beneficiary begins repayment only when he or she has started earning income.

5. The baseline repayment amount is 10% of the monthly net pay of the beneficiary (in the case of an employee) or 10% of monthly income or profit of the beneficiary (in the case of a self-employed)

6. There is also an option of a one-off repayment or an opportunity to indicate the particular percentage model you want for those in private business.’

7. Beneficiaries who can not find employment within the grace period of two years will have to periodically report their employment status to the Student Loan board.

8. Beneficiaries of the student loan confirmed to be dead, terminally ill and incapable of earning a living through work will be granted waivers.

9. The sources of funding as dictated by the Act include; one percent of all profits accruing to the federal government from oil and other minerals; one percent of taxes, levies and duties accruing to the federal government from the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) and Nigerian Customs Service (NCS); education bonds and education endowment fund schemes.

10. The fund is to be domiciled in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and managed by an 11-person special committee chaired by the CBN governor, the law stipulates in Section 5.

11. To apply for the education loan, candidates are required to submit applications to the chairperson of the CBN-governor-headed committee through their respective banks.

12. The application is to be accompanied by a cover letter signed by the head of their institutions (vice-chancellors for university students, rector for polytechnic students and provost for students of colleges of education) and student affairs officer of the institution.

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