Forty-eight years ago, Lanre Laoshe was one of the Nigerian undergraduate students, who benefited from Nigeria’s Federal Government Student Loan Scheme to support his academic pursuit.
Specifically, Lanre, who is today the Chairman of Leverage Insurance Brokers, took the student loan during the military regime of Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo. Obasanjo was in office a military ruler between February 13, 1976 till October 1, 1979.
At the time he rounded off his undergraduate degree at the University of Ibadan (UI), the total loan was one thousand and two hundred naira (N1,200), which now worth three million, one hundred and eighty-nine thousand, two hundred and seventeen Naira (N3,189,217).
Although the Military Government Student Loan Scheme which gave out the loan had collapsed, revival of the student loans led to the creation of another body now known as Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), which now takes custody of repayment of loans that were taken by the present and past beneficiaries.
Pa Lanre, who thought there was no other way to appreciate the gesture he enjoyed from Nigeria’s government between 1976 to 1979, made headlines on August 27, 2024, when NELFUND acknowledged the receipt of his repayment.
What is more interesting about his gesture is the fact that he didn’t only pay back the N1,200 loan he took, but personally calculated the interest accrue on the loan and graciously repaid the sum of N3,189,217 to the covers of the Federal Government.
So…
Who is Lanre Laoshe?
Here are the things EdubaseNG knows about Lanre Laoshe:
He is an alumnus of the University of Ibadan, where he has his first degree
He is a certified insurance broker, being a member of many professional bodies such as Fellow, Nigerian Council of Insurance Brokers; Fellow, Chartered Insurance Institute, and Fellow, Chartered Insurance Institute among others.
He is a founding member of Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation, NAIC, after years of experience at the National Insurance Corporation of Nigeria (NICON).
Lanre’s areas of interest in insurance coverage include engineering, property, oil and gas, aviation, and transportation, where he has over three decades of experience.
He has also worked with insurance brokers such as Hogg Robinson Nigeria and Fidelity Bond of Nigeria, where he was between 1989 to 1998, before joining politics and was nominated by his party and won an election as a lawmaker at the National Assembly in 1999.
He was the former Managing Director of Fidelity Bond of Nigeria.
He was a founding member of Alliance for Democracy (AD), one of the political parties that was formed in 1998 in preparation for 1999 general elections.
Hon Lanre represented Abeokuta South Federal Constituency at the National Assembly between 1999 to 2003, where he served as one of the principal officers – Deputy Whip – of the lower chamber
Impact at the National Assembly
His experience in the insurance brokerage played a huge role in the kinds of successful and impactful bills he sponsored and influenced at the National Assembly. Some of them include Insurance Act 2003, the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers Act 2003, and the Nigerian Accounting Standards Board (NASB) Act 2003, and National Institute Of Marketing Act 2003.
He was also the Chairman of the Interim Management Board of the Nigeria Reinsurance Corporation apart from serving on other committees such as the Presidential Committee on the Harmonisation of Road Traffic Laws and Ministerial Committee on the Review of Insurance Laws among others.
Giving back to the society
Some years back, he founded Lanre Laoshe Foundation in his home state, where he supports education and community development. A few of his community development projects include:
Building a borehole for a health facility at Ibara – Oke – Ilewo Health Centre which initially had no source of portable water. The foundation also equiped the facility with a brand new generator to power it.
He is also in the good history book of Al-Kawthar Model College, Abule Oko, Adiyan Gas Line, Ogun State, after donating a standard Physics and Chemistry Laboratory to the management of the school in 2014.
In 2015, he donated overhead projectors to Lagoon School, Lekki – owned by Nigerian Association for Women’s Advancement.
Paying back his student loan
The military government of Gen. Yakubu Gowon in the 1970s promulgated a decree Nigerian Students’ Loans Board to provide financial support to undergraduate students which is repayable 20 years after graduation.
But most of the debtors failed to repay, it also experienced massive corruption and collapsed due to poor management and the “national cake” syndrome among beneficiaries.
Although the Loans Boar published the names of its debtors at the time of closure, the government was unable to recover the debts because most of the beneficiaries provided fake addresses and non-existent guarantors to the board when they were undergraduate.
But President Bola Tinubu resurrected the student loan scheme through the Access to Higher Education Law to sustain funding for students in government-owned institutions.
Unlike the defunct Nigerian Students’ Loans Board which gives 20 years grace as repayment, NELFUND gives two years after a beneficiary must have completed youth service corps and has a job.
At the time he took the loan, the exchange rate was $1.00 = N0.596 in 1979, meaning that the sum of N1,200.00 was equivalent to $2,013.42 at the time, judging by today’s value of the Naira against the US Dollar.
On how he arrived at the over N3 million he repaid, NELFUND says “the current exchange rate of $1.00 = N1,583.98” was used, “Hon. Laoshe calculated that the equivalent amount today would be N3,189,217.00.”
The grace for repayment for Hon Lanre was 1999, he fulfilled his promise 25 years after to return the loan he took from the Federal Government, a gesture the management of NELFUND described as a rare sincerity and an encouragement to the government to do more.
His gesture is significant in three ways:
One, he didn’t believe that the student loan he took in almost 50 years ago was a “national cake.”
Two, paying back his loan (now worth N3,189,217) is a plus to the funds of the government budgeted for student loans. It means more money, money applicants, and more beneficiaries.
And finally, his gesture is not only a moral booster to their government that indeed there are still Nigerians who are sincere and want the best for the country, but also sending a strong message to those who are currently enjoying the student loan that loan is not a national cake. It is called a loan for purpose. A loan is not a grant and the beneficiary must graciously repay them.
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