Student loan shift tipped to tackle Nigerian sector underfunding

Scholars have expressed hope that Nigeria’s introduction of tuition fees and student loans will end the underfunding of its universities.

One of the first acts in office of new president Bola Tinubu this month was to sign into law a student loan bill, seven years after it was first introduced to the country’s parliament.

Until now, higher education in Africa’s most populous country has been funded by the state and has been free at the point of entry for students.

But this was seen as driving the underfunding of the sector, which tried to shore up its losses by charging students levies and sundry payments.

Ebenezer Obadare, the Douglas Dillon senior fellow for Africa studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the bill “recognises the unsustainability of that model and takes a step towards shifting the burden of payment for education to the student and parents”.

Every student will be eligible to apply for a loan if they have secured a university place and if their family’s income is below a threshold equivalent to about £850 a year.

Mr Obadare noted that the bill had been welcomed by the National Association of Nigerian Students and predicted an influx of applications from prospective students once the government infrastructure, including an education bank, is in place.

Moses Oketch, professor of international education policy and development at UCL, said the reforms had the potential to address long-running funding problems in the Nigerian sector.

“There are continuous strikes by faculty asking for better pay. By establishing the education bank and the loan scheme, universities in Nigeria will likely be winners,” said Professor Oketch.

“Students are winners, too, because, if this move ends up stabilising university finances, then perennial strikes will disappear, and students can be assured of graduating on time.”

Repayment – which begins two years after graduation – comes in the form of a 10 per cent salary deduction.

The bill is good news for universities as it will allow them to charge cost-effective fees, while interest-free loans give young people more incentives to want to attend university, said Professor Oketch.

“The good aspect of an interest-free loan is that it doesn’t saddle students with an ever-ballooning loan when they are not able to make repayment due to personal circumstances,” he said.

Nigeria has long suffered from brain drain, with the country’s young people now making up one of the largest contingents of international students in the UK.

Mr Obadare said he doubted that the new loan bill would stem the flow of talented students out of the country – with the funding a “mere drop in the bucket” as far as funding for universities is concerned.

“It will take some time before the problems of tertiary education in Nigeria are fully addressed. Until then, brain drain is likely to continue.”

However, Professor Oketch said, the changes do have potential if they make funding of Nigerian universities stable and quality staff are retained.

“If many Nigerians feel their universities at home have improved significantly because they are able to charge cost-effective tuition and students are able to secure the loan to pay for it, then there will likely be fewer students seeking overseas university education.

“It may even have the potential of attracting Nigerian academics who are currently overseas to return to Nigeria and teach in the universities.”

patrick.jack@timeshighereducation.com