Recently the nigerian senate introduced Student Loans into Nigeria as a legal practice. For those who don't know, student loans allow institutions to lend students money they use to pay school fees. This is going to be a disaster in Nigeria and should be reconsidered before the damage begins.

1. Unlike societies which offer student loans, employment in Nigeria is a severe problem for graduates. Not just finding work, but finding work that pays well and is consistent. The end result is whatever loans a person takes, they're taking it under the pretense that it will lead to apt employment. But most students in Nigeria are aware that education and employment are not linked in Nigeria. The end result is you will have many students with debt and no jobs.

2. In places like the US with this system, because there is a way for people to pay that is not limited to the amount of real money they have, the cost of education will skyrocket to brutal levels. In the US the average student can expect to pay $102,000 for a university education. In 1980 it was $14,000 for the same education. What is the difference?

If students can take loans to pay for school, schools will charge higher and higher fees because students and families will accept it since the cost does not hit them at once. It's not that the US dollar depreciated that much or education improved to the point that cost over $100,000. This is simply what happens when loans finance and industry.

The end result is no US student pays for school out of pocket. It is impossible. If it happens, it is billionaires (in dollars) as millionaires even take student loans. Student loans always begin as a option, but in the end become the only choice you have due to how expensive it makes education


3. Nigeria has a higher risk of default than other countries that have the system. Nigerians don't have to stay in Nigeria. Once they leave Nigeria, odds are they will find better paying work. So somebody borrows a student loan, leaves the country, escapes the loan. The ones that stay will be burdened with having to pay it some how some way. This will come in the form of increased tuitions and if allowed increased interest.

the US who has this system has a citizenry that rarely leaves the country and almost never leaves the country to live somewhere else. When surveyed, only 16% of Americans wish to live in another country. That 16% is majority young people, meaning as they get older their opinion changes towards staying. Omo, if even 15% of Nigerians will stay in Nigeria if given the chance to leave I would be shocked. This means that the rate of payback on those loans will be extremely low. It will be free school for some, usually those with connections, and those who do not have the money and connections to leave will be stuck paying for those who refuse to pay their own.



This system is very dangerous. I hope Nigeria implements it in a way that's more intelligent and careful than the US did because it has nearly destroyed the educational system here.

Seun Nlfpmod dominique Lalasticlala Mynd44

This is a beautiful, thought-provoking piece and show be on the front page.

Ofodirinwa, if you can get a source to back up your stats of US tuition fees in 1980, it will make a lot of sense.

Nigerians are opportunists, hypocrites and fraudsters. Everyone is trying to game the system.

We know how to abuse everything and I see public school authorities bastardizing this policy like you pointed out.

You are not in tune with realities and even uninformed about the US you kept repeating out of low self esteem

Just few weeks ago, President Biden forgave student loans running into huge amount of around $20 billion that the Republicans protested yet you did not bother to know that many in the US are still unable to pay so you can find out why folks in US could not pay . That is an unpardonable ignorance of speaking on a topic you do not understand. If it is rosy for US graduates, how then did their debt ballooned to $20 billion?
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-expected-cancel-student-loans-millions-us-borrowers-wednesday-2022-08-24/


Secondly, Nigeria is not a credit-based society so even if Senate passes it does not mean every student will take it or our banks will give them automatically. The US is again a horrible system to compare to Nigeria. Debt is a lifestyle in US. It is so bad that almost every American has one debt or the other and their govt is the worst culprit. US GDP is around $22 Trillion but their national debt is over $31 Trillion owed mostly to Japan, China and even Russia! So it is bizarre to compare us with less than 50% of our GDP as debt to a country which has debt that is far over its GDP. It is ignorance that can make anyone not see that Americans are slaves to their creditors.

Finally, the Senate is trying to do what we have done before in the SW. The govt makes a stake in your education if you are exceptionally brilliant and when you graduate with 1st class, they absorb you into its civil service to work for 5-10 years to pay back gradually and progress career wise. This was what Pa Awo did in the 1st republic that gave the SW the educational edge it still enjoys over other tribes in Africa till date.

The SW states will take that law and domesticate it as a loan/investment you pay with your intellect and Omoluabi. US is a horrible example to cite so quit the low self esteem.

Nigerian students loan wil be a welcomed development for 0.1% honest Nigerian(the rich). Free
Money for the Politically connected .

Thieves in Humanitarian service.

They are simply telling you that education is self thought now go online

FreeStuffsNG:
You are not in tune with realities and even uninformed about the US you kept repeating out of low self esteem

Just few weeks ago, President Biden forgave student loans running into huge amount of around $20 billion that the Republicans protested yet you did not bother to know that many in the US are still unable to pay so you can find out why folks in US could not pay . That is an unpardonable ignorance of speaking on a topic you do not understand. If it is rosy for US graduates, how then did their debt ballooned to $20 billion?
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-expected-cancel-student-loans-millions-us-borrowers-wednesday-2022-08-24/


Secondly, Nigeria is not a credit-based society so even if Senate passes it does not mean every student will take it or our banks will give them automatically. The US is again a horrible system to compare to Nigeria. Debt is a lifestyle in US. It is so bad that almost every American has one debt or the other and their govt is the worst culprit. US GDP is around $22 Trillion but their national debt is over $31 Trillion owed mostly to Japan, China and even Russia! So it is bizarre to compare us with less than 50% of our GDP as debt to a country which has debt that is far over its GDP. It is ignorance that can make anyone not see that Americans are slaves to their creditors.

Finally, the Senate is trying to do what we have done before in the SW. The govt makes a stake in your education if you are exceptionally brilliant and when you graduate with 1st class, they absorb you into its civil service to work for 5-10 years to pay back gradually and progress career wise. This was what Pa Awo did in the 1st republic that gave the SW the educational edge it still enjoys over other tribes in Africa till date.

The SW states will take that law and domesticate it as a loan/investment you pay with your intellect and Omoluabi. US is a horrible example to cite so quit the low self esteem.

We should stop copy USA. There are better country to copy their way of doing things

If the student loan repayment is tied to income, as is the case in most countries, some fears should be assuaged.

Nigeria needs increased economic activity to manage the population and population growth.

FreeStuffsNG:
You are not in tune with realities and even uninformed about the US you kept repeating out of low self esteem

The OP highlighted three cogent points. Your rebuttal did not address any of that. It's weird that you call him not in tune; yet present a reply as if you're presenting your own opinion on the matter and not addressing the OP's opinion.

Are you in tune with the reality of his submission?

He raised three points from a country running such loan facility in comparison with ours:

1. How will the impending influx of personnel's into the academic-based labour market sponsored by students loan fare alongside the crippling employment problem in the country? According to NBS, about 30m out of 80m Nigerian workforce are unemployed.

2. He spoke of the rising cost of education which actually makes sense ordinarily because with the advent of student loans, they can afford the education anyway. We already have education rising astronomically. The State University I graduated from, I paid 18k in my 2nd year. Last I checked, it's about 150k now in the same level. What will happen when it is certain that there is a way to afford it anyway?

3. He concluded by talking about the problem of default. I mean, except you're playing the Ostrich, we know it can be a chronic problem, especially in a country without a decent population database. We see many structures in the US for keeping track of their citizens and visitors. Isn't it a case of putting the cart before the horse?; Many debtors here disappear once they switch off their phones.

Your rebuttals are:
1. That the US-based students can't pay up too. Isn't that the point? Even an advanced country like that is still struggling with that plan, you want to dive in?

2. That Nigeria is not a credit-based economy. Let's pretend for a moment that LAPO and all the mobile app credit facilities are just playing around, What is the point of introducing it if it will fail then?

3. That it has been done in the SW before and government will have a stake. It was on air recently that education is highly subsidized by the government. That didn't stop the brain drain in Nigeria as people take off once they get their degrees. And you're saying this Nig. Govt are survey to tie them down for a minimum of 5-years? How much is the loan compared to the cost of japa that they won't offset?

I've thought of introducing this scheme since the government, just like the people, have zero common sense. Nigerians are too wicked and will abuse the priviledge. I'd do it anyway but implement it in a way to pay for one year of tuition. If I get scammed, it won't hurt much.

meobizy:
I've thought of introducing this scheme since the government, just like the people, have zero common sense. Nigerians are too wicked and will abuse the priviledge. I'd do it anyway but implement it in a way to pay for one year of tuition. If I get scammed, it won't hurt much.

You always talk upside down

Let Nigeria invest MASSIVELY in COMPULSORY, QUALITATIVE PRIMARY EDUCATION AND COMPULSORY QUALITATIVE TECHNICAL-BASED SECONDARY EDUCATION.


Those who have the desire to go into intellect-based professions such as medicine, laws etc should proceed to universities. While the others continue to technical, hand or machine-based activities.

If only you know how big illiteracy is a problem then you will know student loans is the best thing ever to happen. Illiteracy kills 10x as smoking or any deadly disease ever discover so at least we won't have illiterates roaming the streets, the debts will settle itself

Ofodirinwa:
Recently the nigerian senate introduced Student Loans into Nigeria as a legal practice. For those who don't know, student loans allow institutions to lend students money they use to pay school fees. This is going to be a disaster in Nigeria and should be reconsidered before the damage begins.

1. Unlike societies which offer student loans, employment in Nigeria is a severe problem for graduates. Not just finding work, but finding work that pays well and is consistent. The end result is whatever loans a person takes, they're taking it under the pretense that it will lead to apt employment. But most students in Nigeria are aware that education and employment are not linked in Nigeria. The end result is you will have many students with debt and no jobs.

2. In places like the US with this system, because there is a way for people to pay that is not limited to the amount of real money they have, the cost of education will skyrocket to brutal levels. In the US the average student can expect to pay $102,000 for a university education. In 1980 it was $14,000 for the same education. What is the difference?

If students can take loans to pay for school, schools will charge higher and higher fees because students and families will accept it since the cost does not hit them at once. It's not that the US dollar depreciated that much or education improved to the point that cost over $100,000. This is simply what happens when loans finance and industry.

The end result is no US student pays for school out of pocket. It is impossible. If it happens, it is billionaires (in dollars) as millionaires even take student loans. Student loans always begin as a option, but in the end become the only choice you have due to how expensive it makes education


3. Nigeria has a higher risk of default than other countries that have the system. Nigerians don't have to stay in Nigeria. Once they leave Nigeria, odds are they will find better paying work. So somebody borrows a student loan, leaves the country, escapes the loan. The ones that stay will be burdened with having to pay it some how some way. This will come in the form of increased tuitions and if allowed increased interest.

the US who has this system has a citizenry that rarely leaves the country and almost never leaves the country to live somewhere else. When surveyed, only 16% of Americans wish to live in another country. That 16% is majority young people, meaning as they get older their opinion changes towards staying. Omo, if even 15% of Nigerians will stay in Nigeria if given the chance to leave I would be shocked. This means that the rate of payback on those loans will be extremely low. It will be free school for some, usually those with connections, and those who do not have the money and connections to leave will be stuck paying for those who refuse to pay their own.



This system is very dangerous. I hope Nigeria implements it in a way that's more intelligent and careful than the US did because it has nearly destroyed the educational system here.

your points are valid but....

Unlike societies which offer student loans, employment in Nigeria is a severe problem for graduates. Not just finding work, but finding work that pays well and is consistent
The reason is clear why it can't work here in Nigeria. In US when a take student loan it is tied to the student credit score and as graduate in the US you get employment immediately cos there are jobs that will give the salary to payback the loan but here in Nigeria as a graduate to get a job is not easy not to talk of getting a well paying job. The little jobs graduate manage to sustain are even paying below the minimum wage.

The federal government has not even said where the funds for the student loans will come from cos I'm very sure that no Nigerian bank would want to be involved in such a high risk venture as giving unsecured loans to students who as at yet do not have an income

The govt that provides student loan policy will have to provide employment for the students to ease return payments of the loan. Life is a wheel. At these junction of our national life, it is apparent that parent receiving monthly salary of 30k at the bearest with Four children or less can never undertake the idea of sending any of their children who is intelligent for tertiary education in this era we box ourselves into in Nigeria. One way out is the students loan, and I agree it has ups and downs: the ups will outweigh the downs in whatever direction we flip it.
Those who fear the failure of Students loan should mellow and allow us to taste it first and whatever challenges we see will surely be resolved along the way.
I stand and support this student loan policy 100%.

Damn it! Cut the bullcrap, is that the way forward? Student loan? Damn! When will these brain drained power drunk as.sholes in power be rational for once? These rapacious leaders are forever stuck on being dumb & looting. Student loan ended up in looters home, that's the way it's gonna play out. The usual drama. Misplaced priority right there @ it's zenith. Headline so exhausting. However, without restructuring that shiiithole called Nigeria, getting it right will be difficile.

FreeStuffsNG:
You are not in tune with realities and even uninformed about the US you kept repeating out of low self esteem

Just few weeks ago, President Biden forgave student loans running into huge amount of around $20 billion that the Republicans protested yet you did not bother to know that many in the US are still unable to pay so you can find out why folks in US could not pay . That is an unpardonable ignorance of speaking on a topic you do not understand. If it is rosy for US graduates, how then did their debt ballooned to $20 billion?
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-expected-cancel-student-loans-millions-us-borrowers-wednesday-2022-08-24/


Secondly, Nigeria is not a credit-based society so even if Senate passes it does not mean every student will take it or our banks will give them automatically. The US is again a horrible system to compare to Nigeria. Debt is a lifestyle in US. It is so bad that almost every American has one debt or the other and their govt is the worst culprit. US GDP is around $22 Trillion but their national debt is over $31 Trillion owed mostly to Japan, China and even Russia! So it is bizarre to compare us with less than 50% of our GDP as debt to a country which has debt that is far over its GDP. It is ignorance that can make anyone not see that Americans are slaves to their creditors.

Finally, the Senate is trying to do what we have done before in the SW. The govt makes a stake in your education if you are exceptionally brilliant and when you graduate with 1st class, they absorb you into its civil service to work for 5-10 years to pay back gradually and progress career wise. This was what Pa Awo did in the 1st republic that gave the SW the educational edge it still enjoys over other tribes in Africa till date.

The SW states will take that law and domesticate it as a loan/investment you pay with your intellect and Omoluabi. US is a horrible example to cite so quit the low self esteem.

I can tell the quality of your brain and upbringing because a fairly safe relatively intelligent discussion is happening and you've entered with insults. Did you know that Biden's 'Student Loan Forgiveness' was stricken down by the legislature?'

Student Loan Student Forgiveness in Limbo: What you should know
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/student-loan-forgiveness-york-pay-145642774.html

Federal appeals court keeps Biden student loan forgiveness plan on pause in latest ruling

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/11/30/appeals-courts-biden-student-loan-forgiveness-program/10790822002/

Student loans relief: 5th Circuit Court rejects Biden's latest plea to reinstate program
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/student-loans-relief-5th-circuit-court-rejects-bidens-latest-plea-reinstate-program

all of these articles are from Dec 1 2022.


You consistently say the US is a horrible system in your post. I write a thread about the dangers of adapting a horrible system from the US and you still think you're being logically consistent. IF Nigeria is not a credit based society, do you think it is because of our blood and bone marrow or because we haven't made the choice to become one? Would this not make Nigeria a credit based society? If every educated person is in extraordinary levels of debt?


Even the SW policy you're citing. Do you know what 5-10 in 'the civil service' mean in the life of a graduate to be working in the civil service to have a loan forgiven? You do school for 4 years, NYSC 1-2. then 5 or 10 years. That's 15 years of your life before entering the job market. You enter the job market and you have no experience in anything but civil service work. This is the reward of education?

Do you know what it will do to civil service wages if there is an unending flood of students trying to have their loans forgiven. Why will I pay a civil servant well if there is 100,000 young desperate indebted people waiting to do the job every single year?

starstaz:
The govt that provides student loan policy will have to provide employment for the students to ease return payments of the loan. Life is a wheel. At these junction of our national life, it is apparent that parent receiving monthly salary of 30k at the bearest with Four children or less can never undertake the idea of sending any of their children who is intelligent for tertiary education in this era we box ourselves into in Nigeria. One way out is the students loan, and I agree it has ups and downs: the ups will outweigh the downs in whatever direction we flip it.
Those who fear the failure of Students loan should mellow and allow us to taste it first and whatever challenges we see will surely be resolved along the way.
I stand and support this student loan policy 100%.

Government does not 'provide employment. Unless you think we will all be civil servants. You want to pass a bad idea because somebody 'should' provide something to supplement it. You have no assurance or guarentee that the thing (employment) will be provided but you support going forward. The only concrete thing you know is that the Nigeria government has not 'provided employment' for graduates in the past. But you still believe it will change. That the government will provide jobs when the demand for high skilled jobs increases several fold because of student loans.

What problem has emerged in Nigeria that has been resolved? You haven't tasted enough? lol

Ofodirinwa:


Government does not 'provide employment. Unless you think we will all be civil servants. You want to pass a bad idea because somebody 'should' provide something to supplement it. You have no assurance or guarentee that the thing (employment) will be provided but you support going forward. The only concrete thing you know is that the Nigeria government has not 'provided employment' for graduates in the past. But you still believe it will change. That the government will provide jobs when the demand for high skilled jobs increases several fold because of student loans.

What problem has emerged in Nigeria that has been resolved? You haven't tasted enough? lol

Nice matured rebuttal, Mr.
Left to me, am seeing a vista of opportunities that can both be created and emerged from this laudable ideas. We all know our yeye govt is always doing kick and follow, in particular from 1999. They have never initiated a people friendly education policy and this one that dey are whinny us, many of us are discouraging them. My submission(s) is let us allow them to do it first, and if it is successful, others after them can start learning the beauty of creating ideas and on the other hand if it failed, the nation will pick it pieces and forge ahead.
Two, as a common trait associated with our politicians, what if the policy is about whining us or making us to jaw war while they chase after the lucre of office. Hence there is no need to fight on this matter if will take into cognizance the trust deficit associated with our policy makers cum politicians.