Education: Why NELFUND excludes private institutions from student loan scheme –Managing Director

*Akintunde Sawyerr, Managing Director of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, explains reasons why the Federal Government’s student loan scheme only serves ‘public tertiary institutions’ for now

Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFund) has said the Federal Government’s student loan scheme only serves public tertiary institutions to enable the country to make the most of limited resources for now.

ConsumerConnect reports Mr. Akintunde Sawyerr, Managing Director of NELFUND, stated this while featuring and discussing discussed repayment clauses, the application process, and fee disbursement procedure on an Arise TV programme monitored in Lagos.

It is recalled President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had enacted an initial version of the student loan policy June 2023 to grant interest-free loans to students.

Hitherto, the scheme was designed to commence  October last year, but implementation was repeatedly deferred until a re-enactment April 2024.

NELFUND later opened the loan application portal May 24 this year when it activated a pilot phase that serves only Federal tertiary institutions.

Sawyer, however, noted that the promising student loan initiative could be expanded to accommodate private tertiary institutions in the future.

According to him, NELFUND has paid N10 billion for 90,970 people, committing to disbursing N92 billion ahead of sessions to begin in a few weeks.

Sawyerr also disclosed his series of meetings with the Presidency have focused on the prospects of making the student loan scheme available to all institutions in Nigeria.

The loan scheme, he stated, is however, primarily designed to aid citizens who are most vulnerable and cannot afford tertiary education tuition.

He further explained: “We’re more likely to find these in public institutions where fees are low. We’re dealing with public funds. The funds are limited.

“When I spoke with the President (Bola Ahmed Tinubu), he expressed his desire that the Fund should be available to all Nigerian learners.

The Managing Director of NELFUND yet said: “But you have to manage funds and start somewhere.

“I do not doubt that, at some point in the future, it will be expanded.

“The fee range we pay out goes from about N46,000 to N150,000 depending on the course.”

He noted: “These are the amounts of money stopping people from progressing into tertiary institutions.

“In private institutions, it will probably run into millions.

“We’re focused on trying to help as many as possible, rather than a few. We have to manage funds.”

On loan application and disbursement procedure

The NELFUND funds for institutional fees are paid directly to the tertiary institution, and a monthly upkeep allowance of N20,000 paid to the student applicant.

The repayment process for the loans begins two years after a recipient completes the mandatory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme, provided such graduates are gainfully employed.

According to NELFUND, 10 percent of an applicant’s earnings is to be deducted by an employer and remitted until the loan is fully refunded to the Federal Government of Nigeria.

According to Sawyerr, 373,000 have registered on the Fund’s portal while 284,000 sought the loan, with more applications from the Northern part of the country.

He said: “We noticed that a good number of the people from the South study in the North and have applied.

“There’s a sort of geographical disparity but not by state of origin.

“There seems to be a lesser level of enthusiasm in the southeast, south-west, and south-south.”

The Managing Director stated: “There are different cultural attitudes to taking loans.

“There is no boycotting in this scheme. There might be trust issues but we’re addressing that.”

Expatiating further on the complexity of the loan application process, Sawyerr said NELFUND had disallowed human interface to avoid graft in the process.

He explained: “We’re using an electronic process and specific identifiers that make it unique to the individual. JAMB numbers, NINs, BVNs, and matriculation numbers.

“The individual goes online to provide us with that information.”

Sawyerr further said: “We match it with what the institution has provided us and know that we are dealing with an individual. It’s an IT-based system.

“They’re bound to have challenges but it’s a generally simple portal to engage with. We have support staff that help us cut through issues that arise.”

The NELFUND Chief Executive asserted: “This is public funds. We are not in a hurry to disburse funds to the wrong people.

“We’re trying to ensure we are not hacked or defrauded.”

He stated: “We recognise that anywhere you have systems like this, you can have people attacking the site, wanting to insert ghost students, and doing identity hijacking.

“We are very careful to put in place processes that ensure we don’t pay people who sneak into our database.”

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