The executive secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, (TETFund), Sonny Echono says the postponement of the federal government student loan scheme is for a short period. He clarified during a courtesy visit paid to him by the Governor of Kwara state, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq on Wednesday. He said the postponement was not indefinite but for a couple of weeks. Echono who assured Nigerian students that President Bola Tinubu is committed to the project said the delay is due to some observations raised from the National Assembly. Stating that the delay is targeted at closing gaps to avoid complications in the implementation and to ensure that the scheme is up to standard. “The loan has not been postponed indefinitely, there’s just a little housekeeping that needs to be done, the president has arrangements in place for the launch,” he said.
According to him, 140,000 students are likely to benefit in the first year and they can apply as soon as the scheme is launched if they have secured their admission. “We are discussing a matter of days, maximum weeks for it to take off. The president is very committed to this, and I can assure you that this is going to be done in the best way. We don’t want to hurriedly launch the program, and there are objections, and it isn’t sustained. We are looking beyond existing students and going into the skilled sector. We’re making sure that the loan can accommodate as many that need it. Even for people with skills, it’s going to be a game changer. We’re working hand in hand with JAMB, we know when admissions will commence, so we are not far behind. In the next couple of weeks, the scheme will take off, and it will accommodate everyone, even students of vocational studies,” Ochono assured.
Governor Abdulrazaq previously commended TETFund for its intervention funds to higher institutions in Kwara and requested more to be done. He said, “Sometimes you do things we do not see or request for and for example in Kwara, we have the best university library in West Africa; it’s such an amazing edifice, all I can say is thank you. But the challenges are especially in management and infrastructure for investment, and we have lopsidedness where the non-teaching staff in these institutions are more than the academic staff of those institutions and they consume most of the resources that are targeted at those institutions and that is where you come in and where you have been deepening your pact.” The governor also urged the TETFund to do more to address the challenges in the colleges of education in the state.
