The Federal Government has confirmed working out modalities to begin disbursement of student loans between September and October this year.

Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Andrew David Adejo, made the disclosure yesterday in Abuja, while addressing the press on the piece of legislation. President Bola Tinubu had signed into law the Student Loan Bill in fulfilment of his campaign promise. Sponsored by Speaker of the Ninth House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, the bill provides for interest-free loans to indigent Nigerian students.

The law is to provide easy access to higher education for poor Nigerians through interest-free loans from the Nigerian Education Loan Fund. Adejo said the President had approved a committee made up of ministries and agencies to see to the realisation of the scheme.

He said: “The bill is to make sure that every Nigerian has access to higher education through what we called the Higher Education Nigerian Bank. “Learning from past mistakes, the bank is not going to be the type that will sit down and be collecting application loans, it will also perform normal banking functions and make sure loans are given because we had cases of loan recovery in the past.