Olowookere Abdulrazak, a Lecturer of Public Administration at the Kwara Polytechnic, llorin, has appealed to the Federal Government to make students loan a social investment scheme that permits flexible repayment.
The lecturer made the appeal while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ilorin on Friday.
Abdulrazaq commended the government for its initiative, but noted that the process of obtaining the loan was cumbersome, considering the rate of unemployment in the country.
He pleaded that beneficiaries that could not secure a job after graduation should also be addressed in the student loan scheme, to ensure repayment.
The lecturer noted that the scheme, with its current arrangements, needed to be reviewed, especially in the area of sanctions for the breach of the loan repayment and time frame.
Abdulrazaq said that the two years given to pay the loan after completion of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) was too short.
This is “especially the area where it was stated that the student loan act stipulated that defaulters risk a fine of N500,000 and two years jail term should be looked into.”