The launch of the Nigerian Students Loan Scheme has been suspended indefinitely.
The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, Akintunde Sawyer, said this when he was a guest at the ARISE NEWS on Tuesday.
Barely 48 hours before the launch, Sawyer said the loan scheme was postponed due to some corrections that were being made around the launch.
“Unfortunately, I won’t be able to commit to a specific date. We are sort of waiting to ensure that all the stakeholders are aligned to make sure that nobody is blindsided, then we can actually roll this out in a meaningful, comprehensive, wholesome and sustainable way,” he said.
President Bola Tinubu in June 2023 signed a bill to start a Students Loan Fund that beneficiaries would get interest-free loans for higher education.
A former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, sponsored the bill billed to start between September and October 2023.
Tinubu moved commencement of the programme to January 2024, after missing the October deadline.
In January, Minister of State for Education, Yusuf Sununu, said at a meeting that preparations for the program were finished. This included making the Student Loan Scheme website and planning how to start the programme.
Also, Tinubu told leaders of the National Association of Nigerian Students that the programme would start once they added more features, like vocational studies.