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Impact of Debt Management Education on Students’ Personal Debt Management Skills in Nigerian Polytechnics

Abstract

Personal debt management has become an important financial capability concern among students in Nigerian polytechnics as students may encounter educational expenses, living costs, digital credit services, consumer purchases, informal borrowing arrangements, and other financial obligations. Limited knowledge of borrowing costs, repayment planning, budgeting, credit terms, and responsible debt use may make it difficult for students to manage personal debts effectively. Debt Management Education provides students with relevant knowledge and practical guidance on responsible borrowing, debt assessment, repayment planning, budgeting, interest costs, credit obligations, and strategies for avoiding excessive indebtedness. Such education may strengthen students’ ability to make informed borrowing decisions and manage existing and future financial obligations. Against this background, this study investigates the impact of Debt Management Education on students’ personal debt management skills in Nigerian polytechnics. The study will be anchored on Financial Literacy Theory, Social Learning Theory, and Theory of Planned Behavior. Financial Literacy Theory explains how financial knowledge and understanding may improve individuals’ ability to make informed decisions concerning borrowing, repayment, and personal financial management. Social Learning Theory emphasizes learning through observation, modelling, practical activities, feedback, and interaction with others. The Theory of Planned Behavior explains how students’ attitudes toward borrowing, perceived social expectations, perceived behavioural control, and intentions may influence responsible debt-management behaviour. Collectively, these theoretical perspectives provide a suitable framework for explaining how Debt Management Education may influence students’ personal debt management skills. The study will adopt a quantitative quasi-experimental research design. The population will comprise students enrolled in selected Nigerian polytechnics. A multistage sampling technique will be used to select states, polytechnics, departments, levels of study, classes, and eligible students. Data will be collected using structured questionnaires, debt-management knowledge assessments, personal debt-management skill scales, financial decision-making scenarios, budgeting exercises, debt-repayment planning tasks, practical performance rubrics, and pre-test and post-test assessments. Debt Management Education will be assessed using indicators such as exposure to debt-management lessons, borrowing-cost education, interest-rate education, loan-term interpretation, repayment planning, budgeting, debt prioritization, debt affordability assessment, credit-risk awareness, responsible borrowing, emergency borrowing, digital-credit awareness, informal borrowing awareness, repayment scheduling, debt-record maintenance, financial planning, savings and debt interaction, debt avoidance strategies, financial counselling, practical exercises, case studies, and financial decision-making activities. Students’ personal debt management skills will be assessed using indicators such as ability to identify existing debts, calculate total debt obligations, understand interest charges, interpret repayment terms, compare borrowing options, assess affordability, prepare debt budgets, prioritize debt repayments, develop repayment schedules, monitor outstanding balances, keep debt records, make timely repayments, distinguish essential from non-essential borrowing, avoid excessive borrowing, recognize high-cost credit, evaluate digital lending offers, identify hidden charges, understand late-payment consequences, manage multiple debts, negotiate repayment arrangements where appropriate, maintain emergency savings, seek financial advice, recognize debt-related risks, and make responsible borrowing decisions. Descriptive statistics will be used to summarize students’ demographic and academic characteristics, exposure to Debt Management Education, borrowing experiences, and personal debt management skill levels. Inferential statistical techniques, including paired and independent t-tests, analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis where appropriate, will be used to determine the impact of Debt Management Education on students’ personal debt management skills. Where a quasi-experimental design is adopted, personal debt management skill scores before and after the educational intervention may be compared with those of a control group receiving conventional financial education or no comparable intervention to determine changes associated with the intervention. Diagnostic tests will also be conducted to assess the reliability, validity, and robustness of the findings. The study is expected to find that Debt Management Education has a significant positive impact on students’ personal debt management skills in Nigerian polytechnics. Students exposed to structured debt-management education are expected to demonstrate improved ability to assess borrowing needs, understand credit costs, plan repayments, monitor debt obligations, and make responsible personal financial decisions. Debt-identification activities may improve students’ understanding of their outstanding financial obligations. Debt-calculation exercises may strengthen students’ ability to determine total amounts owed. Interest-cost activities may improve students’ understanding of the financial implications of borrowing. Loan-term interpretation may strengthen students’ ability to understand repayment periods, charges, and other borrowing conditions. Repayment-planning exercises may improve students’ ability to organize debt obligations according to available income. Budgeting activities may strengthen students’ ability to allocate financial resources toward necessary expenses and debt repayment. Debt-prioritization exercises may improve students’ ability to determine which obligations require immediate attention. Affordability-assessment activities may strengthen students’ ability to evaluate whether proposed borrowing is consistent with their financial capacity. Credit-risk education may improve students’ awareness of the potential consequences of irresponsible borrowing. Responsible-borrowing activities may strengthen students’ ability to distinguish productive or necessary borrowing from unnecessary consumption-based debt. Emergency-borrowing scenarios may improve students’ ability to consider alternatives before taking on additional debt. Digital-credit education may strengthen students’ ability to examine digital lending offers and associated costs before borrowing. Informal-borrowing education may improve awareness of the financial and social implications of borrowing from friends, relatives, informal groups, or other sources. Repayment-scheduling exercises may strengthen students’ ability to establish realistic repayment plans. Debt-record maintenance may improve students’ ability to track amounts owed, repayment dates, and outstanding balances. Financial-planning activities may strengthen students’ ability to consider debt obligations alongside savings and other financial goals. Savings-and-debt exercises may improve students’ understanding of the importance of maintaining financial reserves while managing existing obligations. Debt-avoidance strategies may strengthen students’ ability to reduce unnecessary borrowing. Financial-counselling activities may encourage students to seek appropriate assistance when experiencing difficulties with debt. Practical exercises, case studies, and financial decision-making scenarios may provide students with opportunities to apply debt-management principles to realistic situations. However, the effectiveness of Debt Management Education may be constrained by limited financial resources, irregular student income, peer pressure, social expectations, easy access to digital credit, aggressive lending promotions, inadequate financial counselling services, limited practical financial education, poor saving habits, unexpected financial emergencies, inadequate budgeting practices, and students’ exposure to high-cost or easily accessible borrowing options. The study therefore expects accessible, practical, relevant, and sustained Debt Management Education to contribute significantly to improved personal debt management skills among students in Nigerian polytechnics. The study is expected to contribute to the literature on Debt Management Education, personal debt management skills, financial literacy, student financial capability, responsible borrowing, credit management, debt repayment, budgeting, financial decision-making, digital credit, consumer finance, financial education, Experiential Learning, Social Learning Theory, Theory of Planned Behavior, and student financial wellbeing in Nigeria. The findings will provide useful information to the National Board for Technical Education, polytechnic administrators, Accounting Education departments, accounting educators, financial-literacy educators, financial institutions, financial-technology organizations, student support services, policymakers, and other stakeholders regarding strategies for strengthening students’ financial-management competencies. The study will also provide evidence-based recommendations for integrating practical debt-management education into polytechnic programmes, strengthening students’ understanding of borrowing costs and repayment obligations, promoting effective budgeting and debt-prioritization skills, improving awareness of digital-credit risks, expanding access to financial counselling, developing practical debt-management simulations and case studies, and preparing students to make responsible personal financial decisions.

Keywords: Debt Management Education, personal debt management skills, financial literacy, responsible borrowing, debt repayment, credit management, budgeting, financial decision-making, digital credit, student financial management, financial education, Accounting Education students, Nigerian polytechnics, Nigeria.