PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu has approved the appointment of a managing director and two executive directors to serve on the management team of the National Education Loan Fund (NELFUND).
The appointees are Akintunde Sawyerr, Managing Director; Frederick Akinfala, Executive Director of Finance and Administration, and Mustapha Iyal as Executive Director, Operations.
The special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the president, Ajuri Ngelale, in a statement he signed Friday, April 5, 2024 said the appointments were in line with the determination of the president to secure Nigeria’s socio-economic future by ensuring sustainable higher education and critical skill development for all Nigerian students and the youth.
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Tinubu signed the Student Loans (Access to Higher Education) Act (Repeal and Re-Enactment) Bill, 2024, into law on Wednesday, April 3 following approval by the senate on Wednesday, March 20.
The chairman of its committee on tertiary institutions and TETFUND, Muntari Dandutse, presented a report on the bill to the senate the same day.
Tinubu first signed the bill into law in June 2023 to enable students in need to access interest-free loans to pursue their education in any tertiary institution in the country.
However, its implementation was postponed. During the postponement, Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFund), Akintunde Sawyer, said he could not give a specific date for the commencement of the programme.
Tinubu later wrote to the Senate on March 14, seeking a repeal of the Act and a re-enactment of the Students Loan Bill 2024.
Although the bill is touted to ease access to tertiary education for Nigerian students, members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) described it as an attempt by the government to abandon funding education in public universities.
Unlike the initial bill that was passed and subsequently repealed, the new Act removed the provision that required applicants’ families to earn an annual income of less than N500,000 before they could be eligible for the loan.
It also allows applicants to access loans that cover other fees aside from tuition, unlike the previous Act that limited applications to just tuition.
Nurudeen Akewushola is an investigative reporter and fact-checker with The ICIR. He believes courageous in-depth investigative reporting is the key to social justice, accountability and good governance in society. You can reach him via nyahaya@icirnigeria.org and @NurudeenAkewus1 on Twitter.