NELFund: Our loan doesn’t stop students from travelling abroad after graduation

The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFund) has assured students that beneficiaries of the student loan scheme will not be restricted from travelling abroad after graduation.

Akintunde Sawyerr, the managing director of NELFund, was at a sensitization programme at Edo University in Iyamho, on Wednesday.

The MD addressed student concerns about potential travel limitations attached to obtaining the federal government’s student loan.

Sawyerr said the law that set up NELFund does not limit a student’s ability to seek out work placement outside the university after their programme.

“You are not tied. It doesn’t say you cannot leave Nigeria because you have a loan with us. You can go wherever you want to go in the world,” he clarified.

“However, I think the right and proper thing to do, if you have a loan in Nigeria and you want to get a job somewhere else, is to pay the loan yourself back to your country.”

Sawyerr encouraged students to take advantage of the interest-free loan scheme to ease the financial burden of education on their families, emphasizing its unique benefits compared to other loan types.

“If you miss this opportunity, it will affect generations. Do you know why? Because NELFUND is different from all other types of loans. It is the only loan you can take to acquire something that can never be taken away from you,” he said.

While expressing the commitment of the Fund to always ensure transparency in all its dealings, Sawyerr said NELFund will be fully ready to disburse N135 billion if all the applications received so far are fully processed.

“We have received about 520,000 registrations and about 419,000 applications. We have processed and paid 261,000 students. Both upkeep and institutional fees,” he added.

“Our total exposure today, if we were to pay everybody who has applied, is somewhere in the region of N135 billion.

“But we have not processed all those people. We have got the money and we are ready in case all of them get processed. We can disburse N135 billion.”

Paddy Iyamu, the Edo commissioner for education, pledged the state government’s commitment to ensuring students across the state fully utilize the scheme.

“We are going to be telling all the heads of the tertiary institution with a constant reminder. And continuously we shall pass on the message to every student in the district so that they can apply and benefit from this programme,” Iyamu said.

Dawood Egbefo, the acting vice-chancellor of Edo University, said 51 students from the institution had already benefited from N61.4 million in NELFund disbursement during the 2023/2024 academic session.

In an earlier sensitisation visit to Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, NELFund expressed concern over low application numbers, with only 102 students applying, amounting to less than N20 million.

Lami Suwaid, director of loan allocation and distribution at NELFund, urged the university to take advantage of the new registration cycle to boost participation.