By Brave Dickson
An associate professor at the University of Port Harcourt, Steve Wordu says the implementation of the Student Loan Act might be challenging due to several reasons.
The varsity lecturer who also hailed the legislation told our correspondent that paying back the loan will not be easy because of the lack of jobs’ problem in the country.
He said: “First on the surface, it is something commendable. Commendable in the sense that for a long time, the Nigerian educational system has needed an intervention particularly in the area of creating access for students.
“You know that people go to the university not only for themselves but to also create capacity that will lead to national productivity and eventually improve the human capital level of the country. So, it is a welcome development.
“But the issue and the challenge will be in terms of designing the programme properly and the actual implementation.
“First, if we should go by this, there will be need for an educational bank. Which means, a bank system has to be created with all the necessary banking facilities and there has to be money available to fund the bank because the bank is a programme funding institution.
“The other thing is that what is the base line or the statistical data upon which the Student Loan Act was made? How many people need this loan in Nigeria?
“Also remember that the law has certain conditions that will make a lot of people not to meet up such as attestation and parental obligation.
“And if the law is also talking about punishing people who will not be able to repay after the first two years of NYSC, these days graduates are staying up to eight years without getting a job.
“Is there any job creation attached to it? Since the condition of the loan is that those who benefit from it, when they start working, it will be deducted from their income source.
“Those who will go into business will have to guarantee that they will remit 10 percent of their profit. How can this be properly arranged as to ensure that people access the loan?
“All I am saying is that the implementation of this loan will be a problem.”
Meanwhile, the federal government has said that it is working out modalities to begin the disbursement of the student loan in September.
David Adejo, permanent secretary at the Federal Ministry of Education, disclosed this while answering questions from journalists in Abuja, on Wednesday.
