By Joyce Onuora, Abakaliki
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on community engagement (South East) Barr. Mrs. Chioma Nweze has called on the students in the south east region to cue into the federal government programs and should apply for the student loan to enable them cushion the effects of economic hardships in the country.
Barr. Nweze disclosed this while addressing the students from Ebonyi State University, noted that Nigeria Education Loan Fund(NELFUND) aimed to alleviating economic hardship in the country
Barr Nweze, therefore encourage the south east students to participate to apply for the federal government education NELFUND and other opportunities available to the academic community initiated by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu led Administration with the aimed to attacking economic challenges in the country
According to her: “The purpose of this south east engagement is to educate Nigerian universities and students on the importance of NELFUND and why the students need the loan, What they should do to access the loan and why they should tell other Nigerian students to do what they are doing. South East have taken the forefront in a lot of things and we want to tell us that there is nothing wrong in taking the loan.
“Anything that federal government brings, let’s be part of it, if it is grants, lets take it, and if it is loan let’s take it and if it is money for research, let’s take it. Let our universities be at the forefront and we shouldn’t be last.
“This initiative is part of President Bola Tinubu’s administration’s efforts to address Nigeria’s economic challenges through various poverty alleviation programmes. It’s essential to note that these policies are still unfolding, and their effectiveness will manifest in fullness of time” Nweze revealed.
On his Speech, the managing director of NELFUND, Mr. Akintunde Sawyerr stated about 742 students haven’t apply for the loans while noted there’s need for students to take action to engage into federal government initiative loan given by the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu .
Sawyerr further noted that they need the data of all Ebonyi State students who applying for the loan, both the Jambs, matriculation number to be uploading correctly in the system, “we want to make it fair and equitable because we are here to make sure all the students from south east apply for the fund and to overcome their challenges uploading in the system”
“The main reason that I’m here in the south east is to let the people of the area know that the President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu has fulfilled an election promise, to affect many areas of the lives of Nigerian citizens, and education is one of them. And one of the program within the education, is this students loan fund. Which seeks to provide loans to students who are Nigerian, who has the capacity and ability to engage and take their education further” he noted.
According to the vice chancellor of Ebonyi State University, Prof. Chigozie Ogbu, he commended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for approving the NELFUND for benefits of the students, which will help to tackle the rate of students dropout and reduce social vices in the country.
