Student Loan Incentive Abnormal Debt – Finance Expert Akande Warns

A financial management analyst, Asiwaju Busari Shaamsuddeen Akande, has warned that the proposed student loan by President Bola Tinubu, though a good idea, will be another financial burden as well as an abnormal debt for students.

In an interview in Calabar, the Cross River State capital, he cautioned against giving out such loans, saying it would be inimical and that the government should think of another form of incentive for the students.

Akande, Director-General of Non-Interest Finance Professionals of West Africa, said, “A student loan, be it non-interest or 1%, is an abnormal debt. I think that another incentive should be reconsidered. Student Loans should be out completely.

“What happened to Corps Members’ Entrepreneurship Loans, in which students used their discharged certificates as collateral?

“What’s the economic value of the discharged certificates used as collateral to average Nigerian graduates? What happened to Farmers’ loans? Were they repaid? No!”

He cautioned that Nigerians are smarter than expected and that there have been too many unnecessary debts in the country.

“Debt is part of our culture. For the past 30 years, we have been known to be a doubtful and bad debt nation. In my own opinion, I can relate the syndrome to our colonial masters for their debt mentoring. You remember our debt profile at Independence in 1960 stood at £5billion,” he added.

He believed that average “Nigerian parents can sponsor their children to school be it federal, state or private and in most cases, foreign schools.”