•Loans to be disbursed within 5 working days
From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has disclosed that the student loan disbursement for the current cycle has hit N54.2 billion.
The breakdown of the figure indicated that institutional fees paid to institutions as of April 29, 2025, stood at N30, 179, 797, 649.20, while upkeep allowance paid stood at N24,036,160,000.00, totalling N54,215,957,649 20
The data, which was obtained from NELFUND further revealed that 596, 061 students have registered for the loan, while 546, 511 students have applied for the loan, indicating that 91 percent of registrants successfully applied for the loan.
Managing Director of NELFUND, Mr. Akintunde Sawyerr, described the new information as a progress, urging students who are interested in the loan to take advantage of the scheme to acquire education that would prepare them for great opportunities in the future.
NELFUND encouraged students and school management to assist it in serving them better and promptly by supplying accurate information to the database to avoid unnecessary delay in the disbursements.
It directed school managements to quickly refund students, who might have paid their tuition fees before the process of disbursements was completed.
Meanwhile, the Director of Monitoring and Evaluation, Aliyu Mohammed said that NELFUND had been consistent in improving its systems for overall efficient and effective service delivery.
He said it has resolved some of the issues that had been responsible for the delays in approving the students’ loan for onward disbursements to schools and students.
He said except for unexpected challenges or errors from the schools, disbursements of loans including tuition fees to schools would take place within five working days.
Aliyu Mohammed, Director, Monitoring and Evaluation, disclosed this at a strategic engagement with management and students of The Polytechnic, Ibadan, Oyo State.
He said NELFUND has been consistent in improving its systems to ensure efficiency, effectiveness and accountability, hence, he appealed to the schools and students to assist NELFUND to achieve that by providing accurate information, promptly and timely.
During an interactive session with the students, he restated that the conditions and process of the application have remained the same over the period except for the continuous investments being made on the systems to ensure efficiency and timely disbursement of funds to students.
He disclosed that thousands of students had benefited from the loan scheme, and further disclosed that information at the NELFUND’s database indicated that over 6000 students had successfully submitted applications for the loan, and they are being processed.
He appreciated the commitment of the management of the school to the dreams and spirit of the student loan programme, assuring that more and speedy attention would be given to their applications for timely disbursement.
Acting Rector of the school, Dr. Abiden Taiwo Lasis, apologised to NELFUND for the recent mix-up in the process, particularly the notifications to students to begin payment of tuition fees due to delayed response from the agency.
“We did that because of the eight months’ delay we experienced in accessing the loan disbursement for the students. Ideally, the students paid 60 percent of their tuition fees in the first semester and the remaining one in the second semester. But, our second semester started in September last year, and several months after, nothing was heard from NELFUND.
“We are a state institution, and we need funds to run the institution. We need to pay salaries of workers, and other administrative burdens, particularly the electricity bill. We were forced to task the students, so we could continue to run the school efficiently.
“But, with the assurance we received from NELFUND about resolving the long time it takes to disburse the funds, we would, henceforth, rely on the NELFUND for prompt and timely disbursement of funds to students.”
He appreciated NELFUND for the recent workshop in Abuja, where key officials were involved in the loan application and disbursement, stating that it exposed them to the nitty-gritty of the programme, and provided clarifications and answers to several unanswered questions.
Director of ICT of the school, Dr. Florence Babalola, disclosed that the process of refunding tuition fees to about 25 students whose tuition fees had been paid by NELFUND is ongoing.
“These are students who have paid the tuition fees because their student loan disbursement was received. We have notified about 25 of them and have asked them to visit the students to visit the students’ affairs department to fill in the necessary forms.”
Oladipupo Daniel, president of Students Union Government (SUG), said he had been at the forefront of the sensitisation, and that has been responsible for the rise in the number of applications, promising to continue the sensitisation so that more people could benefit.