- Portal opens on Friday
By Joel Okwara
The portal for the take off of the Student Loan Scheme (SLS), floated by the one-year-old administration of President Bola Tinubu, will open on Friday, May 24, 2024, with students from federal universities, polytechnics, colleges of education, and technical colleges.
And only students, whose institutions have uploaded their data on the Nigeria Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) dashboard would be eligible to apply for the loan.
The scheme will take off with 1.2m students as beneficiaries, and the loan, which is an equivalent of the tuition fees of the benefitting students, will be paid directly to their institutions.
However, stipends would be paid directly to beneficiaries every month, to assist them buy other things that can make them comfortable while pursuing their education.
The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the NELFUND, Akintunde Sawyerr, said this on Monday, May 20, at a news conference in Abuja.
“The first phase of the application for the portal of student loan programme would be officially opened on the 24th of May, 2024, for students in federal institutions like Universities, Polytechnic, Colleges of Education, and Technical Colleges, whose institutions have completed and uploaded their students’ data,” Mr Sawyerr said.
“This student loan scheme is available to students, who are in government institutions at the tertiary level.
“We are going to start with federal institutions because it is a programme that we have to roll out in phases. It will eventually be rolled out to state-owned institutions,” Sawyerr added.
Sawyerr said no guarantor is needed for students to access the loan, noting that applicants would be required to provide their “Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) letter, National Identification Number (NIN), and Bank Verification Number (BVN).”
“Applicants are also to complete the application, including personal details, academic information, and details of financial need, and submit the application after reviewing it.”
On the repayments, Sawyerr said the loanees, regardless of where they get a job, whether they are working with the government or with somebody else, must pay back the loans after two years.
He said: “The student loan scheme will pay 100 per cent of the fee for the loanees at the institution. There is also the track of providing stipends to the loanees.
“We only pay for one session at a time because people drop out of institutions, they change institutions, change their mind about the course they want to do.”
On bad loans, Sawyerr said the agency was trying to make sure that it had as much information about the applicants as possible, and be sure that they are bonafide Nigerian citizens and are of good standing.
“We also have various ways of working with security agencies to ensure that the people, who are applying to these loans, are not people who may want to defraud,” he added.
[7:03 am, 21/05/2024] Ehichioya Ezomon: Police In Lagos Begin 24-hour Bike Patrol On 3rd Mainland Bridge
The Rapid Response Squad (RRS) of the Police Command in Lagos State has begun a 24-hour bike patrol on the Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos.
The RRS made this known in a post it shared on its official X handle @rrsLagos767 on Monday, May 20.
It stated that the Commander of RRS, CSP Olayinka Egbeyemi, had directed the squad’s motorcycle riders to begin a 24-hour patrol on the Third Mainland Bridge.
“RRS Commander, CSP Olayinka Egbeyemi, has directed the squad’s Bike Riders to commence a 24-hour patrol of the Third Mainland Bridge, Lagos, as a way of protecting the infrastructure on the bridge. Also to prevent the incidence of harassment of road users by miscreants.
“This is in line with the directives of the State Commissioner of Police, CP Adegoke Fayoade, to the squad for the protection of lives, property and public infrastructure on the newly-renovated bridge,” it stated.
The RRS said that Egbeyemi appealed to motorists and road users to cooperate with the riders so that they could serve them better.
