To actualise the provisions of the Higher Education Act 2023 otherwise known as Students Loan Act, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), are interfacing to fashion out modalities for speedy disbursement to beneficiaries.
It will be recalled that President Bola Tinubu recently signed into law a Bill that provides interest-free education loans for Nigerians willing to acquire tertiary education while they pay in instalments two years after their participation in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), programme.
The apex bank in a meeting with JAMB at the Board's in Bwari, said JAMB as a critical stakeholder is to provide the requisite database of eligible students who had enrolled in Nigerian tertiary institutions as part of the verification process for accessing the loan.
The deputy director of CBN, Mr. Oyeleke Abayomi, who represented the CBN at the high-powered meeting commended the JAMB team for its prompt response despite the short notice.
He stated that the students loan scheme scheduled to commence with effect from 1st October, 2023, would be in phases noting that while there were stakeholders such as the Federal Ministry of Education, tertiary institutions and their regulatory agencies listed in the Act, the responsibility of the CBN, according to him, was to develop an application to operationalise the disbursement of the loan.
Abayomi, therefore, stated that they came to JAMB to seek partnership in ensuring the smooth running of the loan scheme, to get the best means of validating the eligibility of students admitted into tertiary institutions vis-a-vis data supplied by applicants.
He further explained that all interested Nigerian students are to login and register for the loan while CBN verifies the citizenship and admission status of the applicants, adding that the loan is to cater for tuition and upkeep.
On his part, the registrar of JAMB, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, represented by director of finance and Accounts, Mr. Mufutau Bello, thanked the visitors for their kind remarks and for partnering with the Board in the implementation of the scheme.
