Video: Renowned Islamic scholar, Dr. Sharafudeen Gbadebo Raji, declares FG’s student loan permissible for Muslim students
Dr. Sharafudeen Gbadebo Raji, a respected Islamic scholar from Ogbomoso, Oyo State, South West Nigeria, has issued a fatwa declaring that the new student loan introduced by the Federal Government is permissible for Muslim students to apply for.
The popular scholar, who is the proprietor of Al Madinah Centre, stressed that Muslim students are allowed to seek the newly introduced student loan by the Federal Government, as it is permissible under Islamic law.
Dr. Sharafudeen said this in a short clip where he was asked about the permissibility of the new student loan introduced by the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led administration to ease the rising cost of tuition fees in many states and FG-owned higher institutions.
When asked about the new scheme, Dr. Sharafudeen Gbadebo Raji stated that he sees nothing objectionable about it, emphasising that it is an interest-free loan with no concealed fees, including registration costs, making it permissible under Islamic principles.
Recall that President Tinubu, on June 12, 2023, signed the Access to Higher Education Act 2023 into law to enable Nigerian students to have access to interest-free loans for their educational pursuits in tertiary institutions.
The laudable initiative was in “fulfillment of one of his campaign promises to liberalise funding of education,” a member of the then Presidential Strategy Team, Dele Alake, said.
The Act, popularly known as the Students Loan Law, also established the Nigerian Education Loan Fund(NELFUND) to process all loan requests, grants, disbursement, and recovery.
The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has since opened the application portal for the first phase of the student loan scheme.
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