Nigeria’s President, Bola Tinubu has signed the Student Loan Bill into law.
A Presidential aide, Dele Alake, disclosed this to State House Correspondents on Monday evening.
The new piece of legislation will enable Nigerian students to access loans at interest-free rates.
Nigeria has never had a student loan system backed by law.
The United States by contrast has had one for decades.
A CNBC report however said Some 44 million Americans collectively hold over 1.6 trillion dollars in student debt. And these numbers are growing.
The New America website says the United States government began guaranteeing student loans provided by banks and non-profit lenders in 1965, creating the program that is now called the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program.
The first federal student loans, however, provided under the National Defense Education Act of 1958, were direct loans capitalized with U.S. Treasury funds, following a recommendation of economist Milton Friedman.
