LEGIST<\/a><\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\nThe re-enacted Students Loans Act 2024 which originated as an\nExecutive bill expunges certain provisions and introduces some new provisions,\ndifferent from what was contained in the now repealed Students Loans Act 2023. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Students Loans Act 2024 expands\nthe eligibility of those who can apply for student loans to all Nigerian\nstudents admitted into Federal and State government tertiary education institutions\nand vocational or skills acquisition institutions licensed by the Federal\nGovernment, and eliminates the requirement for an applicant or their family to\nhave an annual income of less than N500,000 as required in the repealed Act. It\nalso expands the purpose of the loan from only tuition, to include other fees payable to educational institutions\nand upkeep for the student. Furthermore, it expunges the requirement for an\napplicant to have two guarantors who must be either a civil servant of at least\na level 12, a lawyer of at least 10-years post-call experience, a judicial officer or Justice of Peace. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Act establishes the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) as a\ncorporate entity, which is responsible for the administration of student loans.\nIt replaces the Executive Secretary of the Fund with a Managing Director, to be\nappointed by the President and supported by three Executive Directors with\n5-year tenures. It also establishes a Board of Directors for the Fund, to be\nheaded by a non-executive Chairman. The Act further empowers the Board of the\nFund to make specific regulations regarding the process of loan applications\nand the criteria for granting loans in each financial year. It removes the\nadministration of the Fund from the Central Bank of Nigeria. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Act retains 1% of all taxes, levies and duties collected by the\nFederal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) as a source of funding for NELFUND and\ndeletes the 1% of taxes, levies and dues accruing to the Nigeria Immigration\nService and Nigeria Customs Service as a source of funding. Furthermore, it establishes\na General Reserve Fund and stipulates National Assembly appropriation,\ninvestment income, charges and fees by NELFUND and repayment of interest on\nloans as some sources of funding. The mention of interest on loans as a source\nof funding implies that the student loans will not be interest-free as provided\nby the 2023 Act. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new Act removes the provision which disqualified the children of\npersons who have defaulted on any loans from applying for student loans in the\nrepealed 2023 Act. This means that an applicant whose parents defaulted on a\nprevious loan can still apply for a student loan. However, the Act disqualifies\nbeneficiaries of any loan or scholarship scheme of the Federal Government or\nany of its agencies from applying for student loans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 2024 Act maintains that loan recovery efforts are to be\ninitiated two years after a recipient of a student loan completes the National\nYouth Service Corps (NYSC) programme. However, it provides that a recipient of\na student loan may request an extension of enforcement by providing an\naffidavit to the effect that he or she is unemployed and is not receiving any\nincome. Also, while the repealed Students Loans Act 2023 criminalised failure\nto repay loans, the 2024 Act provides that loan repayment may be waived in the\nevent of death, cases of hardship, reasons of equity where it is impossible to\nrecover the loan amount or where the cost of recovery exceeds the amount being\nsought. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 2024 Act places a duty on employers to find out from the Fund,\nthe student loan status of persons they employ. Employers found guilty of\ncontravening this provision are punishable by a fine of not less than two\nmillion naira and or an imprisonment term of not less than one year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Employers are mandated to provide the Fund with necessary\ninformation of their employees who are beneficiaries of the student loans and\nare yet to complete their repayment, to enable the Fund initiate repayment of\nthe loan and any charges from such persons. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new Students Loans Act 2024 when implemented, can potentially\ngrant more Nigerians access to tertiary and vocational education, particularly\nthose from low-income backgrounds. The expansion of the coverage of the loans\nto include other charges and upkeep for students is commendable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The removal of a limit on annual personal\/family income as an\neligibility criterion is likely to translate to a larger pool of student loan\napplicants vying for loans from limited resources. Also, the exemptions from loan\nrepayment while providing some flexibility raise concern of abuse by student\nloan beneficiaries, as this may result in the Fund being unable to recover some\nloans paid out to beneficiaries. The Board of the Fund which is ultimately\nresponsible for making specific regulations with regard to the eligibility\ncriteria that will guide the application process may want to consider these\nfactors and streamline the category of persons who can apply for student loans\non the basis of financial need, academic merit, or any other basis it deems fit\nin order to have a more manageable pool of beneficiaries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The moratorium period of two years before repayment of the loan\ncommences should be extended in the light of the high unemployment rate in\nNigeria, which means that on average, it can take graduates more than two years\nto secure employment after completing their National Youth Service Corps (NYSC)\nprogramme. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Overall, the Students Loans Act 2024 is a welcome development that\nhas the capacity to aid Nigerians to achieve their educational aspirations. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday, April 3, signed the Students Loans (Access to Higher Education) Act (Repeal and Re-Enactment) Bill, 2024 into law. In a letter dated March 14, 2024, President Bola Tinubu transmitted the bill to the National Assembly. The purpose of the bill was to address the challenges related to the management structure […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3529"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3545,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3529\/revisions\/3545"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}