By David Onwuchekwa
When the Nigerian government announced the revival of the student loan scheme, it was hailed as a bold step towards equal access to higher education.
For many, it sounded like the long-awaited answer to a question generations of indigent students have asked: “Will poverty always be a barrier to education?” Yet, as the programme unfolds, it is becoming clear that the promise is far easier to announce than to access.
In reality, the road to securing a federal government student loan in Nigeria is fraught with obstacles, especially for the very people the scheme is supposed to benefit. From complex application procedures to stiff eligibility criteria, indigent students are once again finding themselves at the margins.
For instance, how can it be insisted in the requirement that a guarantor must be a civil servant of a certain rank or a lawyer or judge? How does a student from a remote village, whose parents are subsistence farmers, find such a person? How do they produce official income documentation when they come from informal economies with no paper trail?
These students are not just poor, they are disconnected from the very systems that the loan process assumes everyone has access to.
Added to that is digital divide, slow or nonexistent internet in rural and even some supposed urban areas as well as the issue of digital literacy, as it were.
The simple reality is that many of Nigeria’s poorest youths do not even own smartphones. What should be a straightforward online application becomes an uphill battle before it even begins.
The truth is uncomfortable: Nigeria’s student loan scheme, in its current form, risks becoming yet another initiative that serves the middle class while leaving the truly needy behind.
Education is one of the few tools that can break the cycle of poverty. When the state fails to ensure that its poorest citizens can access that tool, it is not just an administrative failure, it is a moral one.
If the government truly intends to empower indigent students, the loan process must be simplified and localized. Requirements must reflect Nigeria’s socioeconomic realities.
There should be community-based verification systems rather than rigid guarantor demands. Outreach should be conducted in local languages, with physical support centers established in rural areas, not just portals online.
Until then, the student loan scheme will remain a policy that sounds good in press releases but means little in the life of the student who needs it most.
