The Federal Government of Nigeria has announced that the Student Loan Scheme would be funded through the Education Tax Fund, under the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS.
FIRS Chairman, Zacch Adedeji revealed this on Monday, while briefing State House Correspondents alongside the Executive Secretary of the Board, Dr Akintunde Sawyerr, at the Presidential Villa, in Abuja.
Adedeji stated that the deployment of the Education Tax Fund in the scheme is one of the ways the government can be accountable to taxpayers in the country.
Sawyerr, also assured that the process for applying for the loan would be devoid of human intervention as every action would be undertaken on an App specifically designed for the purpose.
He explained that the government was keen to ensure that young Nigerians do not fail to acquire tertiary education just because of lack of funds to continue their studies.
Accordingly, the implementation of the student loan scheme would enable Nigerians to pick a career trajectory of their choice rather than being forced to do something else because they were unable to acquire requisite education due to lack of funds.
The executive secretary also affirmed that the loan would help to stem the dangerous journeys undertaken by Nigerian youths across the Sahel to Europe in search of a better life.
He further disclosed that school fees for successful applicants would be transferred directly to their institutions, noting that while every Nigerian was eligible to apply for the loan, only the neediest would be supported.
Sawyerr said, “It’s a pleasure to be here today to brief you on the impending launch of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, which is the bedrock that will run the student loan scheme in Nigeria. It’s a great opportunity to help solve an age-old problem that has been on in this dear nation of ours for quite some time.”
“There are many, many people with great capacity and with the desire to improve their education. And usually the place where that falls down is when they get into the tertiary base. At that point they really have a number of options, either to go into the world of work with qualifications that are not necessarily optimal for them or to find ways of funding that tertiary space.
“This law seeks to bridge the gap between the desire to study and the capacity to go further. It seeks to bridge that gap that is created by lack of finance, lack of funding.”
“This loan scheme is being paid for by Nigerian tax payers. So it’s for Nigerians and the NIN helps verify and qualify them as such.
“Their BVN is needed for financial inclusion because this scheme will at some point be able to empower students. So we need to know they have bank accounts. We need to know where their accounts are, to be able to access those accounts.
“It will also have their matric number, admission number so that we can firmly establish which institution they are going because one of the key elements of this is that once we’ve received applications and those applications are approved, the fees or the tuition requirements in terms of financials will be transferred directly to the institution.”
