Victoria Mbangwa
In a bid to bolster funding for student loans, the Federal Government is proposing a new bill that would allocate 30% of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) resources to the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFund).
This move is part of a broader effort to address concerns about financing higher education for Nigerian students.
Mr. Bayo Onanuga, the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, revealed this during a press briefing in Abuja. Stating that the bill, which seeks to amend Section 3 of the TETFund Act No. 16, 2011, would create a steady funding stream for the Student Loan Scheme, which is considered crucial for expanding access to higher education in the country.
It reads, “The Fund shall, before disbursement of the amount in the Fund, set aside in each year (a) one-third of the amount to be transferred to the Nigerian Education Loan Fund established under the Students Loans (Access to Higher Education) Act.”
“An amount not exceeding five per cent of the total monies accruing to the Fund in the preceding year, which shall be applied for – (i) the cost of administration and management of the Fund, necessary for the due administration and implementation of the purpose of this Act, (ii) the maintenance of any property acquired by or vested in the Fund and generally to pay for services rendered to the Fund, and (iv) any other expenditure as may be approved by the Fund, from time to time, in connection with all or any of its functions and powers under this Act.”
Explaining the rationale behind the amendment, Onanuga pointed out that it was necessary to ensure that students could access the infrastructure TETFund has helped create.
He said, “Some of us may have wondered how we are going to fund the loans we are giving to Nigerian students. Most of the funding will now come from the money going to TETFund.
“So there’s an amendment to the TETFund Act that was made in 2011 that now says that the fund shall, before disbursement of the amount in the fund, set aside an initial one-third of the amount to be transferred to the Nigerian Education Loan Fund. That is, 30 per cent of whatever TETFund gets from the federation account will now be passed on to NELFund, which will provide a ready funding source to NELFund.
“Also, TETFund has been pegged to spending only five per cent of its income on its administration. That is, whether it wants to do capital projects in its office or wants to pay salaries, it cannot spend more than five per cent of whatever accrues to it from the Federation Account. That’s the maximum it can get according to the fund. So, 30 per cent of TETFund is now going to fund the NELFund, and five per cent to fund its own operations,”
Onanuga explained.
“TETFund cannot just be building assembly houses or laboratories without making sure that students are able to use those facilities with the loans from NELFund.”
