President Bola Tinubu has shared one of his experiences in the United States, on how he worked as a taxi driver to fund his education in the country- as one of the major reasons for the creation of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND).
In a post on his X handle on Wednesday, Tinubu noted that his personal experiences influenced his commitment to expanding educational opportunities for Nigerian children.
The president said that every Nigerian child deserved equal opportunities regardless of their background or their parents’ financial circumstances, adding that he understood the difficulties of paying tuition and accommodation while pursuing an education.
Tinubu said he had to postpone starting school for several months to save enough money before eventually moving to Chicago, where he worked different jobs to pay his way through university.
“When I first arrived in the United States as a young man, I drove a taxi to earn money for my education. I even had to postpone starting school for several months to save enough,” he said.
“When I eventually got to Chicago, I worked different jobs to support myself and pay my way through university. I know what it means to worry about tuition, accommodation and how to make ends meet while pursuing an education.”
The President noted that education remained a major priority of his administration, saying that NELFUND had provided over N372 billion in student loans for institutional fees and upkeep.
He also disclosed that students in federal and selected state technical colleges now benefit from free school fees, boarding, textbooks and uniforms.
Tinubu noted that the government’s technical and vocational education programme had attracted more than 2.8 million applications, while 38 technical colleges had been rehabilitated.
He explained that his administration had reached a new agreement with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), providing for a 40 per cent increase in academic staff remuneration and measures to improve stability in the country’s universities, adding that the government was committed to ensuring that students completed their courses within the stipulated period.
Credit: channelstv.com
