Senate moves to provide access to loans for indigent students

By Christiana Ekpa

Senate yesterday passed a bill to establish National Students Financial Aids Scheme for the second reading.
Peoples Daily reports that, the bill when pass will allow eligible Nigeria students in higher institutions to access loans.
Sponsor of the billl, Senator Isa Hamman Misau ( APC Bauchi Central) explained that the scheme would afford Nigeria students to access educational loans anywhere in the world.
He lamented that the conventional scholarships offered Nigeria Students has collapsed, hence, students particularly those studying abroad were often stranded.
The bill which was being considered alongside Nigeria education bank Act, 2004 will afford eligible Nigeria students in higher institutions to access loans.
Senator Misau was seeking the repeal of Nigeria Education Bank Act, 2004 for a harmonious operations of the two laws which he believed would solve difficulties by Nigeria students in higher institutions.
“A bill for an Act to establish the National Students Financial Aid Scheme to provide for the granting of loans to eligible students at higher institutions and repeal the provisions of the Nigeria Education Bank Act, 2004 and other matters connected therewith, 2017.”
Supporting the biil, Senator Sam Egwu (PDP Ebonyi Soutt) recalled that he benefitted from scholarship in the old Anambra state.
The lawmaker said, the scheme will help indegent poor students studying in higher institutions, saying that, he took scholarships for students as priority when he governed Ebonyi state.
“Mr. President, distinguished colleagues, I strongly support this bill. I came from a very poor family and I benefitted from government scholarship in the University’, he pointed.
“My father was a court bailiff and after the war in 1970, he became a messenger, and I was almost stranded when I finished my little savings after two years in the University before I began accessing scholarship’, he added.
The bill scaled second reading after the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki put it to a voice votes.