Student Loan Scheme to entrap beneficiaries in endless debt – ASUU Warns

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has criticized the proposed education loan scheme, stating that it will leave students in inescapable debt

ASUU, following its National Executive Council meeting at the Niger Delta University in Wilberforce Island, Bayelsa State, expressed dismay on Thursday over reports that detailed the unfulfilled commitments of the Bola Tinubu-led administration.

These commitments were intended to resolve the longstanding issues that prompted the union to initiate a nationwide strike from February to October 2022.

ASUU maintained its stance that the Students Loan Scheme, advocated by international financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, would deprive public universities of necessary funding.

The statement read, “For the avoidance of doubt, the NEC of ASUU reiterated its rejection of the Students Loan Scheme, which is being promoted by international money lending agencies such as IMF and World Bank.

“Nigerians should be aware that the scheme is a way of starving public universities of funding and a ploy to divert public funds into private universities owned by politically exposed individuals and their friends.

“NEC further observed that the students’ loan scheme will mortgage the entire university system and keep our promising students in perpetual indebtedness. If the scheme could fail in some better-managed economies, there is no guarantee that it will succeed in Nigeria where unbridled corruption, nepotism, and other unsavoury tendencies conspired to kill the Education Bank project after over five years of its existence.

” ASUU, on the other hand, proposed that to truly invest in the future of Nigerian students, both state and Federal Governments should offer grants and scholarships and reintroduce the Needs-Based Budgeting System to the university structure, for enhanced efficiency. That Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu, Femi Gbajabiamila, announced during a meeting with a delegation from the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), led by its President, Lucky Emonefe, at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, that the Federal Student Loan Scheme is expected to launch in the next two to three weeks.