The Students Loans and Access to Higher Education in Nigeria Act has been used by public tertiary institutions in the nation to raise their tuition prices, but the House of Representatives has advised them against doing so.
This came after Terseer Ugbor (APC-Benue)’s motion was approved during plenary on Thursday in Abuja.
The House also decided to invite all parties involved in the education industry to a legislative conference on student debt and access to higher education.
Ugbor, who moved the motion, stated that financial assistance from family and friends was frequently seen as a conventional source of funding for higher education around the world.
He claimed that throughout the previous 60 years, governments in both rich and developing nations have implemented a variety of student loan and educational credit programs to allow students to borrow money for the cost of higher education.
According to him, the use of Students Loans and Educational Credit Schemes in most countries of the world is often justified on the grounds that it guarantees greater access to higher education for less privileged citizens.
He said it was further predicated on the notion that education remained an investment in human capital which in turn would promote individual development, economic growth and national productivity.
He said, “after several years of unsuccessful attempts by successive administrations to introduce students loans, scholarships and other educational credit schemes, the 9th National Assembly passed the Students Loans Bill”.
He said it was recently signed into law by President Bola Tinubu to provide the legal and institutional framework for the implementation of a Students Loan Scheme in the country.
He said the objectives and intention of the Students Loans were patriotic and would impact positive access to higher education in Nigeria, especially among the underprivileged citizens.
He, however, said that there were several critical omissions and identifiable bottlenecks that would frustrate the successful implementation of the Act.
This, according to him, is if immediate further legislative action was not taken to ensure its efficient implementation.
He said there was an urgent need to convene a legislative summit with all key stakeholders to develop a strategy to ensure the smooth implementation of the Act for the benefit of indigent Nigerian students.
(NAN)