The Student Loans (Access to Higher Education) Act (Repeal and Re-Enactment) Bill, 2024 was approved by the Nigerian Senate on Wednesday.
Following consideration of the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFUND’s report, which examined the Bill on the Upper Chamber floor, the Senate passed a resolution.
The report was delivered in plenary by Senator Muntari Dandutse, the chairman of the committee that reviewed the measure.
The Access to Higher Education Act of 2023 is being implemented in part through the student loan program.
The Act, sometimes referred to as the Students Loan Bill, aims to give loans to underprivileged Nigerian students so they may pay for their tuition in Nigerian higher education institutions.
The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) is created by the Act and is supposed to manage all loan requests, grants, loan disbursements, and debt recovery.
The Act states that NELFUND will get funding from various sources and carry out other beneficial endeavors.
Last Monday, Bola Tinubu, the president of Nigeria, forwarded the bill to the National Assembly for review and approval.
By suspending pertinent parts of its standing rules, the Senate had granted the bill an expedited hearing and referred it to the Committee of the Whole for review.