Over 90% of federal institutions have submitted the list of students.”
By Ife Osemedua
365Daily – The Managing Director of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), Akintunde Sawyerr, has disclosed that the website of the student loan fund has received over 60,000 visitors since its launch.
He, however, added that 30,000 students have successfully applied for the loan, while urging heads of the state-owned institutions to start uploading details of their students on its portal.
Sawyerr said over 9.5 million people have visited the portal since it was launched last week.
The student loan scheme will take off with 1.2m students as beneficiaries. Tuition will be credited to the institutions for but stipends would be paid directly to beneficiaries on a monthly basis to assist them with living expenses.
President Bola Tinubu signed the Access to Higher Education Act, 2023 into law on June 12, 2023, to enable indigent students access to interest-free loans for their educational pursuits in any Nigerian tertiary institution.
Speaking at a press briefing in Abuja on Thursday, May 30, 2024, Sawyerr also stated that students of state universities will have the loan fund available to them in the next three weeks.
The NELFUND boss added that over 90% of federal institutions have submitted the list of students, noting that only two federal universities and two federal polytechnics were yet to do so.
Initially, there were concerns over the modalities for eligibility for the loan, and after several delays, President Tinubu directed that it should be extended to Nigerian students interested in skill-development and vocational programmes.
Tinubu based his decision on the need for the scheme to accommodate those who may not want to pursue a university education, noting that skill acquisition is as essential as obtaining undergraduate and graduate academic qualifications.