Group urges FG, NELFUND to ensure openness in student loan policy
By Samuel Ogunsona
The Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) has called on the Federal Government and Trustees of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) to abandon plans to restrict access of the loan to specific courses deemed “high demand” and “practical” to national development.
According to CAPPA, the direction of the policy is discriminatory if the restriction is sustained.
The group said it shows a clear manifestation of the increasing commercialisation of public education, and a betrayal of the Fund’s original mandate to ensure access to higher education for all, not just a privileged few.
NELFUND’s Managing Director, Akintunde Sawyer, announced a soon-to-be-implemented shift of the Fund’s priorities, directing loans towards students in “practical” fields such as engineering and medicine, as well as disciplines that offer exportable skills with potential for overseas employment, like information technology.
However, disciplines like “language studies” would no longer be prioritised.
CAPPA expressed concern that such revision will further marginalise students pursuing disciplines in the humanities, arts, and social sciences, perpetuating systemic inequalities in the education sector.
“This unfair attempt to narrow the policy’s beneficiaries comes at a time when tuition for so-called “marketable” courses have skyrocketed across public higher education institutions, with fees surging from N19,000 to over N200,000 in schools like the University of Lagos and Ibadan, primarily due to worsening economic conditions, which have forced poor students to drop out or resort to undignifying activities to generate money for their school fees,” said CAPPA.
Zikora Ibeh, CAPPA’s Senior Programme Manager, Research and Policy, warned that such a narrow focus would undermine the role of diverse academic disciplines in fostering critical thinking, economic growth, and holistic national development.
CAPPA likened the proposed policy revision to past regressive actions, such as the removal of history from the country’s secondary school curriculum in 2009, which they said deprived generations of Nigerian students of the opportunity to interrogate and understand their past.
The organisation called on the government to prioritise education at all levels and across all disciplines by increasing the budgetary allocation to the sector.
The group urged the Government to invest in vocational training programs, bolster key sectors such as electricity and transportation systems, and ensure the provision of basic amenities.
“CAPPA calls on all Nigerian students, academics, citizens, labour unions, and civil society to firmly reject this short-sighted and divisive approach. We urge the Federal Government and NELFUND managers to undertake an immediate rethink of plans to transform the student loan into an anti-intellectual scheme. Nigeria needs a bold, inclusive vision that recognises the value of every field of study in advancing collective development,” said CAPPA.
