FG details conditions for student loan applicants

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The Federal Government, on Monday, has detailed the conditions a Nigerian student must meet to qualify for the recently established Student Loan Scheme.

It stated that Education Tax under the Federal Inland Revenue Service would serve as one of the funding sources for the student loan.

“That is why the education tax fund is one of the sources of funding that we will use to execute this programme,” said FIRS Chairman, Dr Zacch Adedeji, when he addressed State House Correspondents after briefing President Bola Tinubu on the impending launch of the scheme at the Aso Rock Villa on Monday.

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The Executive Secretary of the Scheme, Dr Akintunde Sawyerr, who gave his first public briefing on the programme, said eligible applicants would route their requests through the loan app or website, affirming that the scheme would be free from human involvement.

He listed the application process, saying prospective candidates must avail their JAMB registration number, date of birth, National Identification Number and Biometric Verification Number, among others.

“The applicant will go on to a portal, or they will engage with the app. They will have to put in certain pieces of information that make them eligible, such as their JAMB number and, of course, the tie-in to their date of birth.

“Further pieces of information include their NIN, which confirms that they are Nigerians. This loan scheme is being paid for by Nigerian taxpayers. So, it’s for Nigerians and the NIN helps verify and qualify them as such.

“Their BVN is for financial inclusion because this scheme in itself will, at some point, be able to empower students, so we need to know they have bank accounts. We need to know where their accounts are to be able to access those accounts.

“It will also have their matric number and admission number so that we can firmly establish which institution they are going to because one of the key elements of this is that once we have received applications and those applications are approved, the fees or the tuition requirements in terms of financials will be transferred directly to the institution. That in itself has benefits for the institution,” The Executive Secretary explained.