By Christiana Ekpa
The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed through third Reading the Student Loan (Access to Higher Education) amendment bill, 2024.
The proposed bill seeks to ensure smooth access to higher education and provide the required assistance in the area of educational advancement through loans needed by Nigerian youths.
According to the report of the Senate and House of Representatives joint Committees on Tertiary Institutions and TetFund, student loans which the House adopted,
The core objective of the bill was to provide a legislative framework to support the establishment of the Nigerian Education Loans Fund to oversee the general administration of the management and disbursement of the loans to beneficiaries.
The approved bill seeks to “provide loans to qualified applicants to pay tuition fees, charges and up keep during their course of study in approved Tertiary Education Institutions and Vocational and Skills Acquisition Institutions in Nigeria”.
The legislative framework also seeks to provide for “Build, operate and maintain a diversified pool of funds to provide loans to qualified applicants and ensure access to Higher Education, Vocational Training and Skills Acquisition.”
The bill also seeks to “ensure the recovery of all debts to the funds from loans granted to applicants except where the Board believes that a Loanee should be exempt from repaying his/her loan because of: death; consideration of hardship or equity; impossibility or undue difficulty or the expenses to be incurred in the recovery of the loan being far more than the amount sought to be recovered.
“The Joint Committee deliberated on the provisions of the Bill and took into account the views expressed by Distinguished Senators and Honourable Members during the debate on the general principles of the Bill at the Second Reading stage.
“In addition, the Joint Committee placed adverts in the media in support of the ‘constituency outreach’ principle in legislation while ensuring that the Bill is publicized and relevant stakeholders engaged to contribute to the content of the Bill.
“Accordingly, the Joint Committee conducted a public hearing on Monday, 18th March, 2024, in order to collate stakeholder’s views on the Bill as inputs to enrich the legislative proposal.”
While presenting the synopsis of the report, Minority Whip, Hon. Usman Kumo expressed optimism that the proposed “Bill contains tremendous benefits for educational advancement of the nation.”
