NELFUND should support Nigeria’s professional needs and not certificates for the sake of it

There is a sense that every measure of what constitute reforms under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu seeks to deal with the metrics rather than the conditions. For instance, there have been two sets of broad changes made under his presidency.

The first set is the market based economic changes of the removal of fuel subsidies during his inauguration speech and the liberalisation of the foreign exchange market two weeks after. Those two changes focused on the prices rather than the market conditions that drive the underlying prices. Rather than seek to understand and change the market conditions that deliver the unacceptable prices, the President had proceeded to change the prices and expected the market conditions to align. 

Of course, that did not happen. 

The other set of “reforms” is the different categories of financial support provided to different groups of people on the back of worsening economic crisis under his leadership. We now have a deepening and broadening of the social support programmes first introduced under President Muhammadu Buhari. In this case also, rather than focus on the underlying challenges around production and productivity, the president has focused on providing different forms of cash transfers which invariably chases the same amount of goods in the economy. 

However, there is something entirely new about the student loans support. The Nigeria Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) established last year with an initial N5 billion is a great initiative but requires reforms. The loan is expected to provide increasing access to higher education to those that cannot afford it. With a monthly allowance of N20k and payment of relevant tuition fees, it is expected that 1.2 million students will benefit in the first phase. So far, an estimated near 300,000 students have already applied. 

But access to higher education has never been a serious problem. Access to quality and relevant higher education is the national problem we face. 

As it is, the loans are used by any student that needs it, but this does not necessarily means that it is used by the student that really needs it. Since the loans are not means tested, it is not necessarily the most indigent that gets it. So, rather than focus on expanding access to just any course in any higher institution in the country, the resources should be used to support the professional needs of the country. Rather than focus on the financial handicaps of students, the loans are better off supporting the growth and expansion of the professional areas most needed by the country – medical, biological, and technological sciences. These are areas where Nigeria can most benefit in the medium and long ter, using the loans as incentives. 

It is time for Nigeria to move beyond elements of socialism and the democratisation of poverty. The scarce resources available for scholarships should be used to solve Nigeria’s problems and not for personal egos. 

Spending four years doing courses and attending universities classes that do not add anything serious to knowledge and skills should not be our priority but how to fill the enormous gaps in the fields of medicine, pharmacy, technology, labs science, electrical, civil, and other forms of engineering fields. These are those that require incentives to study those courses. 

Indeed, because of the length of some of these courses, the relative higher costs of studying them, and the perceived faint interests by the government in these areas, many intelligent and brilliant students avoid them. By also focusing on the excellence of students, irrespective of financial background, which the government is not able to judge in the applications anyway, the government will be providing incentives for excellence. 

In conclusion, Nigerians have always loved education. Though that has metamorphosed into the erroneous love for certificates, rather than knowledge. It has also led to the rapid increases in the number of universities without commensurate increase in knowledge and skills. A corollary of that is the many degrees in our universities that have no further implications than the certificates awarded. It is no wonder that the managing director of NELFUND, Akintunde Sawyerr believes the students should be further supported with job opportunities if they do not get one two years after their service year. 

NELFUND should not preoccupy itself with that. It should be about supporting the best students to be relevant to Nigeria’s economic growth and development. So, instead of providing across all kinds of courses in all kinds of higher institution, the fund should support Nigeria’s priorities and expected outcomes. 

I thank you.