Chidimma Uchegbu
The Managing Director of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), Mr. Akintunde Sawyerr, has revealed that the agency may consider extending its student loan scheme to private institutions within the next three years.
Sawyerr disclosed this during a strategic engagement and sensitisation campaign with heads of institutions and other stakeholders in Enugu on Thursday.
The sensitisation campaign covered local dialects to enhance comprehension and encourage people in the region to key into the programme.
He emphasized the need to first address the pressing demands of students in public universities and colleges, Sawyerr noted that the long-term goal is to ensure all Nigerian students, regardless of institution type, have access to financial support for their education.
“We have only been going for one year. We need to really address the public sector first. These loans allow students to otherwise drop out for very small amounts of money.
“The students that we see in the public sector don’t even have the option in most cases to go to private sector, and some of them are dropping out. So we want to address that, make sure that we’ve got them covered.
“And then when we see after a while, I think two, three years max, when we see the effect this has had on the generality of youth in Nigeria, we can then do some sort of review to see what it might mean for moving to the private sector segment.”
He said the only challenges the Fund has are the usual ones which includes misunderstanding, misinformation, people not being sure, or feeling that it’s designed not to work for them or that something is stopping them.
“They just have a normal problem like everybody else has with technology, and then they say, this has been rigged against us. But we’re here. We’re not here to waste our time. We’re here to help the people apply and get institutions to also take part.”
Also speaking, the Special Adviser to the Enugu State Governor on Education Innovation, Dr. Chinyere Onyeisi, said there is a need for the loans because education is a very vast area that requires a lot of attention.
“So what the government is doing has an essential role to play in different areas of education. But this NELFund has to do with the student support system. And it is important for our students in Southeast and Enugu in particular to maximise the opportunity to apply.
“Because the major takeaway to the teachers, the heads of institutions that are here today is when they go back to their various schools, they are supposed to continue to step down the specialisation programme to make sure that the students understand the procedures, how to apply, and then apply effectively to benefit from this initiative. Because it’s real. And they are testifying that other states are already benefiting.”
