Youths have been advised by President Bola Tinubu to take advantage of the student loan program that his administration has instituted. In a Sunday national broadcast, the president made an appeal regarding the ongoing statewide protest. He asserted that by establishing the student loan program, his administration had demonstrated its commitment to the youth.
Payments of N45.6 billion have already been made to students and the associated institutions. The President remarked, “I encourage more of our vibrant youth population to take advantage of this opportunity.”
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the President declared on July 17 that the student loan program was an instrument to combat poverty when he launched it.
He said the student loan scheme aligned with his administration’s commitment to inclusiveness and assured sufficient funding to sustain the program.
“Democracy is all about inclusiveness. Our target is to build a society based on successful inclusiveness,” he said.
He continued by saying that the best defense against poverty in any society was education, which was also necessary for growth, vision, and the effective fight against insecurity, which included banditry and terrorism. The pupils from all six geopolitical zones of Nigeria received checks from the president.
Currently, N32 billion is available for program funding to get things started. When the application system launched on May 25, 164,000 students had enrolled, of whom 103,000 had requested loans.
The Student Loans (Access to Higher Study) Act, an effort that was signed into law on April 3, 2024, intends to empower young people in Nigeria by removing financial barriers to study and offering equitable and transparent funding.
