Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa of Ondo State on Thursday praised President Bola Tinubu over the creation of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) initiative.
Aiyedatiwa stated this when the Managing Director (MD) of NELFUND, Mr Akintunde Sawyerr, and his management staff paid him a courtesy visit at his office in Akure.
The student loan initiative is a program established by the Federal Government to break financial barriers in higher education.
The governor said the initiative would help the country’s teeming youth population to get access to formal education with ease.
He noted that what Nigerians were used to was bursary, which he described as a gift to the students, but noted that the initiative was much more better with repayments being interest free at stipulated time
Aiyedatiwa urged the body to intensify publicity, especially at various institutions to ensure more awareness for the students that really needed it.
“This initiative is another opportunity to make all to have opportunity of obtaining university degree through this platform. You are making history with this initiative.
“A lot of our youths will benefit from this. They don’t need to know anybody and that is the way the programme is operating and we just have to educate them and give them awareness,” he said.
Earlier, the MD of NELFUND, Mr Akintunde Sawyerr, said the initiative was to allow Nigerian youths get educated without too much stress.
“Ondo State is the first state we will visit and we are watching the progress being made by the state in terms of enrollment and engagement,” he said.
The MD solicited Aiyedatiwa’s advice on improving the initiative and noted that all ideas were welcomed.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the MD later submitted the progress report of the state to the governor. (NAN)
