The report on the bill was tendered before the federal lawmakers by the committee’s chairman, Senator Muntari Dandutse (APC – Katsina South).
The Nigerian Senate has passed the Student Loans (Access to Higher Education) Act (Repeal and Re-Enactment) Bill, 2024.
The legislative enactment occurred on Wednesday, following the Senate’s scrutiny of the report of the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFUND, which reviewed the bill.
The report on the bill was tendered before the federal lawmakers by the committee’s chairman, Senator Muntari Dandutse (APC – Katsina South).
The bill was introduced to the Senate by President Bola Tinubu for consideration and passage last week.
The Senate hurried the bill’s hearing by suspending relevant elements of its standing rules and referring it to the Committee of the Whole for consideration.
Following a debate on the bill, Senate President Godswill Akpabio sent it to the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFUND for further legislative action, with a one-week report deadline.
The bill proposes to offer destitute Nigerians simple access to higher education through interest-free loans from the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, which was established by the Act to ensure education for all Nigerians.
Many concerned citizens and civil organisations have criticised this policy, saying the loan would not improve access to tertiary education in the country as advocated by the government.
For instance, the Education Rights Campaign (ERC) has described it as a smokescreen to take education out of the reach of the poor.
The group asserted that the scheme had not worked anywhere else, noting that it would transform public education into a business and students into customers.
It later stated that the postponement of the student loan policy by the government showed that the policy was not designed for the interests of indigent students in the country.
The ERC noted this in a press statement jointly signed by Hassan Taiwo Soweto, National Coordinator and Michael Lenin, its National Mobilisation Officer last week.
The group said that the programme was a packaged fraud by the Tinubu government to deceive Nigerians into continuing to raise tuition for public colleges, making education more expensive for common residents.