Rising numbers of qualified students demanding higher education in Nigeria is putting financial strain on government, which has played a major role in funding higher education but unsustainable because of dwindling government revenue from oil.
In light of this challenge, Nigeria has lessons to learn from South Africa, Kenya and Ghana in order to review and reintroduce the use of student loan schemes, which has become popular in different African countries including Rwanda and Uganda, recently. The reasons for opting for the student loan schemes are diverse.
State-supported student loan scheme not only eases government budget, but also helps the students and their families because, besides easing the pressure on public funds, it would enable students study now and pay for their education later when they are in receipt of the higher salaries that generally accrue to university graduates.
However, while the student loan schemes have been successful in many countries, particularly in the developed nations, there are also countries where the experience of the loan schemes has been rather disappointing.
It costs approximately N270,000 on average, per annum to train a science student in some federal universities in Nigeria. It costs over N800,000 on average, per annum, to train a medical student, BusinessDay investigation shows.
This means the Federal Government of Nigeria subsidises tuition leading of most federal universities; charging tuition fees of between N9,000 and N25,000. When in 2017 Adamu Adamu, the minister of education, said the government was making efforts to increase tuition fees in all federal universities to about N45,000, there was an outcry and the move was shelved.
Systems of grants, bursaries and allowances that were set up to overcome grave shortages of skilled manpower impose a heavy burden on public funds at a time of severe financial pressure, and this threatens both quality in higher education and the achievement of other important goals, including the provision of basic education for all.
“This is telling on the quality of the products of our federal institutions. In some federal universities, you find a lecturer teaching a class of 400-500 students, three or four courses in a semester. What quality of research goes into the work, and you expect quality education?
“At the MIT, two lecturers may handle a course with an army of sometimes 10 teaching assistants. The quality you get from such a system would definitely be outstanding. It comes down to availability of funds,” Victor Odumuyiwa, lecturer, department of computer sciences, University of Lagos, said.
In South Africa, the students’ loan scheme started on a small scale without a law in 1991, but National Students Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) was established by an Act of parliament in 1999. It offers loans and bursaries to eligible citizens; charges subsidised rates of interest on loans, and collected through employers and tax administration system.
The NSFAS led to increased access to higher education for the poor and disadvantaged persons; increased number of beneficiaries; lower rates of interest on loans; and supportive to higher education institutions in terms of funds.
“A student loan scheme will surely help. I was in Ghana three years ago to give a keynote address at the 2015 Conference of the Association of African Higher Education Financing Agencies (AAHEFA) and was pained to note that the student loan scheme exists in many countries in Africa” Peter Okebukola, former executive secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), said in an emailed response.
In Ghana, the students’ loan scheme first started without a law in 1971, re-introduced in 1975 and later 1989. It was first managed by Ghana Commercial Bank and later by the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), and now by Student Loan Trust Fund and an Act. It charges subsidised interest rates on loans; demands for no guarantors, and loans collected through employers.
People familiar with the matter say the scheme existed in the past in Nigeria and had to be wound up because repayment rate was pitifully low. “Beneficiaries evaded re-payment claiming it is part of their share of the national cake. I am not sure that this posture among our students has changed,” Okebukola said.
The former NUC executive secretary explained that in the absence of a reliable national identity scheme, tracing beneficiaries would be a hassle.
Increasing and a largely young population mean that the demand for education is growing in Nigeria and across the African continent. The median age for the Nigerian population is put at 17.9 years, one of the lowest globally, while that of Africa is about 19.5 years. Quality education rank high in hierarchy of needs of African middle-class families earning $5,000 per annum.
Analysts say massive access to tertiary education is necessary to transform Nigeria from commodities based to a predominantly knowledge-based economy. But according to a poverty report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), about 112 million Nigerians, representing 62.2 percent of the country’s total population of 180 million live below the poverty line of $2 a day.
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