Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo in Umuahia
With the South-east still lagging behind in the students loan scheme set up by the federal government, Abia State has initiated plan to carry out sensitisation programme on the merits of the National Education Loan Funds (NELFUND).
Governor Alex Otti made this known weekend when he received in audience a delegation of NELFUND led by Director, Regional Advocacy, Nneamaka Okafor, saying that adequate advocacy was needed to stimulate students’ interest in the education loans.
He said that if students and their parents were properly informed about the loan scheme more students in tertiary institutions would likely key into the programme and access the available loan to fund their education.
Otti particularly stressed the need for optimal advocacy on NELFUND in the South-east zone because of the attitude of an average Igbo towards loan.
According to him, “our people have this attitude towards (taking) loan except if they’ve tried everything” because once they borrow money, even the business people, they won’t have rest of mind until they pay back.
“This is where advocacy comes in. I am not too sure that our people know that it is interest-free, may be they know, but their attitude towards borrowing still has something to do with it. I think we need to sensitize them,” Otti said.
The Abia governor expressed optimism that NELFUND would become very popular in the South-east zone “if our people understand clearly that nobody would be chasing them to pay back the loan when they have no means of livelihood.”
He commended the federal government for setting up NELFUND, saying that “this is a very good initiative particularly for students who are from indigent homes.”
Otti noted that “we need to do a whole lot more” of enlightenment in public tertiary institutions in Abia, including Abia State University, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu Polytechnic, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, even though it is a federal university.
He therefore, charged the Commissioner for Tertiary Education, Professor Uche Emeh Uche, to take up the task of leading aggressive advocacy in the tertiary institutions across Abia.
He assured the Director Regional Advocacy, National Education Loan Funds that Abia State is ready to assist in the area of proving space for the agency to have its of in the state as well as provide every other necessary logistics for the smooth operation of the office .
The State Chief Executive used the opportunity to inform the gathering that since the introduction of free education at primary and secondary school levels in the State, there has been an upsurge in the schools in terms of enrollments and the policy is working effectively.
“Since we started in January this year, there has been an upsurge in registration.
Initially we were thinking we will have to enforce it. So, we said, if you are of school age and we see you hawking banana and groundnut, we will arrest you and exchange you with your parents.
“What we found is that schools are busting and there is nobody to arrest, people want to go to school ,” Gov. Otti stated.
Earlier in her remarks, the NELFUND Director, Regional Advocacy, said that her delegation was in Abia in search of partnership with the state government in sensitizing the people about the students’ loan.
She noted that the South-east has the least number of applicants for the student’s loans since April 2024 when the opportunity to access the loan commenced.
Okafor explained that the loan disbursed by NELFUND is for students in government institutions of higher learning – university, polytechnic and college of education.
She stated that the loan, which is interest -free is expected to be paid back within 10 years effective from two years after the beneficiary would have completed the national youth service.
