Student Loan Bill – An Idea Whose Time Has Come by Abiola Metilelu, CEO PressPayNg
Yesterday President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (GCFR) signed ✍🏻 into law The Student Loan Bill, which provides for interest-free loans to indigent Nigerian students and it’s been tending across all platforms.
I have read several opinions and perspectives on this Act and I submit that all concerns are valid; from those who think the model is DOA to those who have applauded the initiative.🤦🏼♂️👏📍.
But, as a vanguard of student loan in Africa, having championed this conversation with the National Assembly and leading a startup that focuses on education financing solutions – here is my two cents on the Student Loan Act, 2023:
✅ No one launches a “perfect product”- this initiative is not an exception. The greatest success comes from having the freedom to fail. The political will to make tertiary education accessible and affordable for the average Nigerian student by this administration is commendable, we will learn along the curve. We led this conversation, and it’s fulfilling that our advocacy and appeal to the government to sign the bill didn’t go to waste. Read my recent interview with Thisday Newspaper on this – https://lnkd.in/dZrFhYF6
✅ It’s a huge win for Nigerian students and the education sector with several low hanging fruits – The Student Loan Act, 2023 will:
🎯Foster tertiary education enrollment rate that is currently at about 15.2% per annum.
🎯Flatten the curve of tertiary education dropout rate that is currently at about 18% per annum.
🎯Reduce capital flight on foreign education from Nigeria that stood at about $220m in 2022. The UK alone generated over £42 billion from international students in 2021/2022.
🎯Create an enabling environment for private sector driven models on alternative education financing.
🎯Become a very potent instrument for human capital development by “Incentivizing” education in Nigeria.
But, we must ensure that those who need the loan gain access to it. We must lock the safety settings of this initiative against racketeering.
At PressPayNg – we saw the future and we are already “funding the future”. In the words of Yemi Faseun – “those waiting for the future to happen are already living in the past”
Checkout the The PressPayNg App 📲- It offers much more than student loans. It’s an ecosystem that empowers the education ambition of Nigerian (and African) youths.
We have FCMB Group and our various vertical-specific partners to thank for jumping on this with us when we launched PressPayNg App in 2021. Adesoji Owobamirin and Shamsideen Fashola FCA, thank you Sirs for leading the line. 🫡🫶🏻
To the wonderful team @ PressPayNg, the reward for hard work is more work. This move by the government is a call to action.💪🏽🏃🏽♂️
#StudentLoan #StudentLoanBill #Education #EducationFinance #AlternativeFinancing #PressPayNg #FundingTheFuture
