Nigeria has postponed the launch of the Nigerian Students Loan Scheme indefinitely.The government has planned to start a Students Loan Fund that would give interest-free loans to Nigerians for higher education.
“Unfortunately, I won’t be able to commit to a specific date. We are sort of waiting to ensure that all the stakeholders are aligned to make sure that nobody is blindsided, then we can actually roll this out in a meaningful, comprehensive, wholesome and sustainable way” – Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, Akintunde Sawyer.
This is not a bad decision because with the level of inflation in the country, there is no realistic way the government can do this right now. I understand that many students would be disappointed but read the core words: “meaningful, comprehensive, wholesome and sustainable way”.
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Largely, the government does not see how to lend money today at 0% interest, and expect the students to repay in say 6 years, and still use the same funds to fund new students. If we can stabilize the Naira, I am sure that many private lenders will step in, but at the current deterioration rate of Naira, that would be challenging.
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They should suspend payment of salaries to the secretary of the so called Loan Fund and everyone that works there. What exactly is their job right now they will be drawing salaries for? We don’t even pay attention to how these creatures steal everything, but we will be here talking about canceled loan scheme (which was very useless and meaningless anyway), forgetting that people will be getting paid for nonexistent jobs.
This economy is not the sort of economy where any thinking person should be talking Student Loan scheme, except they just want to giveaway money, which will also create more inflation in the long run, because whatever loan you are doling is not a product of any productive endeavour, but rather more money printing.
Nothing about this APC government was ever thought through, because there was never a plan, all you see are people who scramble things up on the go, and once they encounter problems as a result of thoughtless action anyway, they reverse or suspend.
Nobody is thinking in this government, but they are giving you guys the impression that they do some thinking before announcing these quarter measures. No, they don’t. They are still being listened to simply because majority of Nigerians are like them.