Kaduna State Scholarship and Loans Board has promised to continue its planned disbursements to beneficiaries, in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is threatening to affect government’s monetary and fiscal policies around the world.
The Executive Secretary of the Board, Hassan Rilwan who gave this assurance in a press statement on Monday, further said that ‘’ loan application and indeed the entire Board’s activity will go on uninterrupted at a time Covid-19 has shut down governments around the World.’’
The Executive Secretary said that already, application for educational loan is now open and can be accessed through scholarship.kdsg.gov/loans for citizens and residents of Kaduna State.
According to him, those who are eligible for the loan include workers in any private organization, state or federal government, adding that ‘’ parents or anybody who is interested in the education of the student can also apply.’’
Hassan also said that ‘’only students who are employed with any private organization, state or federal government can self-sponsor.’’
Hassan further said that applicants who are working for either Kaduna State or federal government must provide a guarantor while a private sector employee must provide two guarantors.
The Executive Secretary said that beneficiaries can access up to N5 million loan, payable over a period of 5 years at a single digit interest of 8%.
‘’Applicants must realize that under no circumstances will the entire funds be released to them. Tuition fees will be paid directly to the school’s account while upkeep requirement will be credited into the student’s account monthly. The fund is only for tertiary education and professional certification and not for business investment,’’ he warned.
The Executive Secretary pointed out that the Board has complied with Governor Nasir El Rufai’s directive, ‘’that the process of the loan application until approval, should be achieved from the comfort of the applicant’s environment.’’
According to him, ‘’the Governor emphasized that this will reduce processing time and need for physical visit to the Board and the Banks.’’
Hassan recalled that the governor created a N2 billion Fund as seed amount to be made available to its citizens through the revamped Kaduna State Scholarship and Loans Board in December 2019.
‘’ The government expressed its willingness to increase the funds based on the successes of the initial seed amount. This is in addition to making available N4.7 billion for the award of scholarships and loans to its citizens in 2020 alone.
‘’With a total of N6.7 billion made available to intervene in tertiary education and N42 billion budgeted for ensuring that education is free, compulsory, qualitative and conducive from primary to secondary school, the government is prepared to intervene across the different levels of education for its citizens,’’ he argued.
