Chidimma Uchegbu
The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has put the number of loan beneficiaries across tertiary institutions in the country as at July 2025 at 396,252.
It also estimated that the total loan applications received from eligible students across Nigeria and the FCT stood at 645,692, while disclosing that over N73.2 billion have so far been disbursed across beneficiary students.
The Fund placed the percentage of loan applications processed at 94% cutting across 206 tertiary institutions across the 36 states and FCT.
Managing Director and Chief Executive of NELFUND, Akintunde Sawyerr gave the statistics on Thursday, as part of activities marking the first year anniversary of the Fund in Nigeria.
Sawyerr while engaging the media in Abuja, acknowledged some constraints faced by the Fund, accusing some tertiary institution management of failing in data integrity, delays in verification processes and widespread misinformation.
He said credit must go to the President, Bola Tinubu for seeing to the effective take-off of the Students loan scheme through passage by the National Assembly.
According to him, the political will of the President to birth a Fund of this nature, at a point where some undergraduates were at the verge of dropping out of school remains noteworthy.
The MD also said the policy is aimed at democratising access to higher education and skill development through sustainable financing.
Sawyerr revealed, “Since we opened our application portal in May 2024, we have made remarkable progress that is both measurable and meaningful.
“Over 645,692 applications have been received from eligible students across Nigeria’s 36 states and the FCT. Tuition and upkeep loans have been successfully disbursed to more than 396, 252 students, many of whom are first generation students in tertiary institutions.
“We have deployed a fully digital, transparent loan portal, built to global standards, to ensure seamless processing, tracking and verification.
“But let me be clear, this journey has not been without its challenges. We have encountered issues with some institutional data integrity, delays in verification processes and widespread misinformation. Yet, through it all, we have remained steadfast improving our systems, engaging directly with applicants, training institutional focal points and responding swiftly to tickets, concerns and grievances”.
Sawyerr however regretted the spate of misinformation trailing the Fund on the media space, warning that such antics may end up jeopardizing the noble ideas behind setting it up.
He enjoined Nigerians to always consult the Fund management, whenever they have grey areas they need clarification, rather than resorting to peddling falsehood.
