₦airaland Forum

RuggedBiafran:
Soludo is just useless.

He wanted a society wedding for this daughter and used Abuja. Why not use his Anambra State.? Truly Anambra State failed voting for a failure like Soludo

I wished he was the person kidnapped..

Mtcheeeew

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has released the sum of N50 billion to the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) from recovered assets to support the student loan scheme.

The anti-graft agency announced this in a press statement on Tuesday, following a visit by NELFUND’s head, Akinwunmi Sawyerr, to the EFCC headquarters.

According to the statement, the chairman of EFCC, Ola Olukoyede, lauded the student loan programme, describing it as a policy issue to tackle corruption.

Olukoyede also mentioned that the inability of many parents to fund the education of their children had always been a predisposing factor of corruption, making students vulnerable to all forms of economic and financial crimes.

“One of the main incentives to cybercrimes is the inability of parents to fund the education of their children. NELFUND is a policy issue against crimes. President Tinubu should be commended for initiating the Fund”, he said.

More Insights
On his part, Sawyerr said NELFUND was a programme designed to provide funding for the education of indigent students.

He also thanked EFCC for the N50 billion injected into NELFUND from the proceeds of crime recovered by the Commission.

“We are aware of the funds from the proceeds of crime extended to NELFUND. We are here to express our gratitude for the gesture. We also want the EFCC to exercise oversight on what we are doing”, he said.

What you should know
The revised Student Loan Act of 2024 was created to make education more accessible to all Nigerian students, regardless of their financial situation.

The Act aims to remove the financial barriers that often prevent students from pursuing higher education.

The National Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) will receive money from several sources, including a small percentage of taxes and duties collected by key government agencies like the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Nigerian Immigration Service, and Nigerian Customs Service.

Additionally, profits from the government’s natural resource activities, education bonds, and donations from individuals and organizations will also contribute to the fund.

These loans will help cover tuition, fees, and living expenses. Graduates will start repaying the loan two years after completing the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) program, giving them time to settle into their careers before beginning repayment.

In July, the Fund disbursed N2.5 billion to various institutions across the country.

The management also said that it has released the sum of N20,000 as July stipends to students across the country in August.

Health Minister Ali Pate says doctors and nurses trained in Nigeria are sought-after globally, and that 67% of them work in the United Kingdom (UK).

The minister, on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Tuesday, said if health workers of Nigerian origin pull out of the National Health Service (NHS), the service will struggle.

He spoke on the new National Policy on Health Workforce Migration approved by President Bola Tinubu to tackle the exodus of health workers from Nigeria in a phenomenon colloquially known as ‘Japa’.

He said Nigerian doctors and nurses are attractive and the country should be proud of that. He noted that not all Nigerian health workers leave the country and that those who leave have their reasons for exiting.

He said the policy “is really about health diplomacy and promoting ethical recruitment practices”.

“The recruitment countries; that recruit our professionals, should they not have some responsibilities help us expand the training? Because the strain of health workers’ migration is continuous; it’s not going to stop tomorrow.

“UK will need Nigerian doctors. 67% of our doctors go to the United Kingdom and 25% of the NHIS workforce is Nigerian.

“Does the UK, for instance, want to consider expanding the pre-service education? Can we have corridors that allow us to have a compact that ‘you’ll take so but you will also help us train more so you will replace them’? That is in the realm of health diplomacy and ethical replacement,” Pate said.

“Nigerians are very vibrant, very entrepreneurial, and very capable wherever they are. If Nigerians hold back from the UK, for instance, the NHS will struggle to provide the services that many Nigerians are going there to get,” he added.

Pate said over 75% of health workers trained in the last year have left Nigeria to other countries as economic migrants. “We have good training centres here, and the universities are doing a great job,” he admitted.

He said there is freedom of movement and the government cannot stop them from leaving but the government will make it conducive for them to stay and practice in Nigeria.

He said the new policy will facilitate incentives for medical workers to stay in Nigeria with improved welfare packages as well as enhanced capacity development.

Another area of focus of the new policy is the promotion of a decent work environment that is not beyond 12 hours per shift.