Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, has urged the Federal Government to ensure that beneficiaries of the student loan funds are not plunged into huge debts.
The governor gave the charge on Tuesday while hosting a delegation from the leadership and management of the Nigeria Education Loans Fund (NELFUND) at his office in Osogbo.
According to Adeleke, he is aware of the challenges that the student loan scheme caused citizens of the United States of America and warned that “debt trap must never be experienced in Nigeria’s students‘ loan operations.”
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This came as the scheme has been officially launched in the state.
The Managing Director of NELFUND, Akintunde Sawyer, said the loan scheme is for government-owned tertiary institutions alone, saying beneficiaries would pay back two years after completing their National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and after they have secured employment.
NELFUND opened its application portal in the first phase of registration for student loans in May.
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The first phase accepted applications from federal tertiary institutions.
About 1.2m students in 226 federal universities, polytechnics, colleges of education, and technical colleges were expected to benefit from the first phase.
Data obtained from the NUC and other agencies indicated that the nation has 226 federal tertiary institutions comprising 62 universities, 41 polytechnics, 96 monotechnics and 27 colleges of education.
Sawyerr in May disclosed that the Fund started receiving applications from state universities on June 25.
He requested all state institutions to submit their students’ data immediately in order to facilitate a smooth and seamless application process.
