Student Loans: New Hope for NOUN undergraduates

The National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) has clarified the complicated procedures of student loans for its students.

Prof. Olufemi Peters, Vice Chancellor of the Institution, voiced concern about some false statements and comments alleging that NOUN students are ineligible to participate in the student loan system.

It will be recalled that the management of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) had earlier said NOUN students are ineligible to apply for the newly launched student loan.
However, Peters said that the information is not correct, and should be disregarded.

According to him, the initial challenges that, perhaps, led to the misinformation, was because of misrepresentation from the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) which has been corrected.

“There was a misrepresentation by JAMB on that matter, but they have since corrected it. Director of Admissions or even JAMB Registrar can attest to that.

“We always register our students with JAMB every semester, and they all possess JAMB registration number. In addition to that, we strictly follow the same admission processes with other conventional institutions.

“So, I can say for sure that our students are captor in JAMB database which is major criteria for accessing the loan. NOUN are eligible to enjoy the student loan scheme because the initial challenges that was caused by JAMB has been corrected.”

NELFund, few weeks ago stated that NOUN students are not eligible to register for the students loan scheme because of their inability to posses JAMB registration number which is a major criteria for accessing the fund.

The development created some anxiety and concerns among NOUN students who had wanted to leverage on the opportunity of the students loan to acquire university education.