The Nigerian Educational Loan Fund has said it would disburse the sum of ₦850M to institutions as fees today.
The Managing Director of the Fund, Akintunde Sawyer, made this known during a press briefing in Abuja on Wednesday, noting that the disbursement is apart from the over ₦1.7Bn that has been disbursed to about 20,000 students.
“The sum of N850M will be leaving the account of NELFUND Today to institutions. This is apart from the N1.7Bn naira that has already been disbursed,” he said.
Earlier, Sawyer disclosed that the Fund had disbursed institutional fees to 20,000 students through their institutions.
He also noted that a total of 260,000 loans including institutional fees and upkeep have been approved.
No fewer than 1.2 million students are expected to benefit from this cardinal program of President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
It would be recalled that President Bola Tinubu had approved ₦35bn for the take-off of the scheme after signing the law backing the scheme on April 3.
This comes after separate considerations by both the Senate and the House of Representatives of the report of the Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFund.
Tinubu said no Nigerian, regardless of their background, will be excluded from obtaining quality education.
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“This is to ensure that no one, no matter how poor their background is, is excluded from quality education and opportunity to build their future,” said the President at the State House, Abuja.
Tinubu thanked the National Assembly for considering the piece of legislation speedily, affirming that the administration is determined to increase the skill levels of Nigerians.
He said, “I have just signed a bill proclaiming the student loan effectively. First of all, I must thank members of the National Assembly for their expeditious handling of this bill considering the children of Nigeria, that education is the tool to fight against poverty effectively.
“We are determined to ensure that education is given the proper attention necessary for the country including skills development programmes.
“We are here because we are all educated and were helped. In the past, we have seen a lot of our children dropped out of colleges and given up the opportunity. That is no more, the standard and the control is there for you to apply no matter who you are as long as you are a Nigerian citizen.”
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