Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has announced that more than N77 billion has been disbursed for tuition and upkeep to 396,252 students across 210 tertiary institutions nationwide after the launch of its application portal last year.
Akintunde Sawyer, the Managing Director of NELFUND, made the disclosure during a media engagement held to commemorate the scheme’s one-year anniversary.
Mr Sawyer emphasised the need for accurate and factual reporting of the student loan programme to encourage increased participation by prospective applicants and investors while strengthening public confidence in the initiative.
“This is a transformational initiative by President Bola Tinubu. He is absolutely committed to ensuring the programme begins well, operates efficiently, and remains sustainable,” he stated.
In response to concerns regarding unemployment and loan repayment, Mr Sawyer revealed that NELFUND was already developing a job portal, expected to launch within the next year, to support loan beneficiaries in securing employment opportunities after graduation.
“The idea is to create a centralised platform aggregating job opportunities across the private and public sectors, both locally and internationally. Beneficiaries of the loan scheme will be prioritised in receiving job notifications,” he explained.
He maintained that loan repayment would only commence after graduates secure employment, following their National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) year.
Mustapha Iyal, the Executive Director of Operations explained that while the public is informed of a 30-day processing window, NELFUND’s internal verification takes just one week, with delays typically arising from tertiary institutions’ response times.
“Our advertisements say 30 days, but at NELFUND we verify within a week. The delay comes when we wait for institutions to complete their verification process,” Mr Iyal said.
He also announced that ten institutions had been denied access to the fund due to what he described as abnormal increases in tuition fees.
On future projections, Mr Iyal said the scheme had already recorded over three million applications and was targeting an increase of at least one million additional applicants in the coming months.
In May, NELFUND disclosed that private institutions may be integrated into the student loan scheme by the year 2028.
RN
