Benue govt to provide loans for private schools to improve facility

From: Uche Nnorom, Makurdi

Benue State Government in a bid to improve facilities and structures of private schools in the State, has introduced a loan scheme known as School Improvement Loan Scheme, SILS.

The loan scheme is to be  facilitated by the state owned Micro-finance Bank NOVUS Microfinance Bank, through Benue State Quality Assurance Agency BEQA.

This was disclosed by the Director General, Benue State Education Quality Assurance Agency, BEQA at a meeting held at THE Agency headquarters in Makurdi attended by the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Novus Microfinance Bank, Makurdi, Pat Goja and members of the State chapter of the National Association of Private Schools NAPS.

Speaking at the occasion Dr Terna explained the the loan scheme is part of Governor Hyacinth Alia way to encourage private sector participation in the economy.

Said he “recently we went out and discovered that there are deplorable private schools in the state; there are schools that are not up to standard and our job as agents of quality assurance is to ensure standard after evaluating and monitoring schools.

“So with the deplorable level of schools that we found, we decided to come into collaboration with Novus Microfinance bank, and the Governor decided to inject some funds into this school improvement loan scheme.

“It is a window for proprietors of private schools to come and access loan at a very low interest rate so that they will be able to build their schools and ensure that they are up to date and up to the standard that we are asking them to live up to”.