NIGERIA: Student Loan Disbursement to Begin Next Week Under NELFUND

According to the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), credit notifications would be sent by next week to tertiary institution students who have applied successfully for loans under the Federal Government’s program and are starting new classes.

 

Akintunde Sawyerr, the managing director of NELFUND, stated on Channels TV on Wednesday that “the people who are going to receive alerts as early as next week are the people who are about to start a new session in the institution they are in.”

 

According to him, credit notices won’t be sent to other qualified candidates until their individual colleges’ fall semesters start.

Sawyerr’s revelations came hours after President Bola Tinubu formally launched NELFUND at the State House in Abuja.

 

He said 170,000 applicants from universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education now have accounts with NELFUND but 110,000 applicants have successfully completed the loan application process.

 

The NELFUND boss said there are two types of beneficiaries, the first being the institutions that would get paid on behalf of those who have successfully applied to go to those institutions, and the second are the students themselves who would receive a monthly stipends.

“On Wednesday, the disbursement circle was formally launched at the State House,” he stated.

 

As per Sawyerr, the program’s objective was to provide Nigeria with “improved socio-economic conditions and better leadership in the future.”

 

Approximately 110,000 students have applied successfully, to be exact. They have submitted their applications and been confirmed as legitimate and qualified candidates. However, we will still do additional verification to ensure that they meet the requirements to be eligible for these loans. However, it’s expected that more than 110,000 will start getting payments the next week.

“It’s one thing to get approval for the loan, it’s another thing to begin to receive value. This loan is for those who are going to be starting institutions afresh or those who are already there,” he said.

 

Sawyerr pointed out that each of the applicants must have Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) registration numbers, matriculation numbers, Bank Verification Numbers (BVN), and National Identification Numbers (NIN), among other requirements.

 

“Current expenditure to students is about N35bn. We’ve got much more than that sitting in our accounts that we can disburse, and we’ve also got some funding on the way. Remember, we are getting 1% of Federal Inland Revenue Service taxes and we also can receive funding from other sources,” he explained.