NELFund: Why we excluded private institutions from student loan scheme

The Nigeria Education Loan Fund (NELFund) says the federal government’s student loan scheme only serves public tertiary institutions to enable the country to make the most of limited resources.

Akintunde  Sawyerr, the MD of NELFund, said the scheme could be opened up to accommodate private institutions in the future.

Sawyerr spoke during an Arise TV programme where he discussed repayment clauses, the application process, and fee disbursement.

He said NELFund has paid N10 billion for 90,970 people, committing to disbursing N92 billion ahead of sessions to begin in a few weeks.

The MD said his meetings with the presidency had discussed the prospects of making the student loan scheme available to all institutions.

Sawyerr said the loan is however primarily designed to aid citizens who are most vulnerable and can not afford tertiary education.

“We’re more likely to find these in public institutions where fees are low. We’re dealing with public funds. The funds are limited,” he said.

“When I spoke with the president, he expressed his desire that the fund should be available to all Nigerians. 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. 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.”

President Bola Tinubu enacted an initial version of the student loan policy in June 2023 to grant interest-free loans to students.

The scheme was to commence in October 2023 but implementation was repeatedly deferred until a re-enactment in April 2024.

NELFUND opened the loan application portal on May 24, at which time a pilot phase that served only federal tertiary institutions began.

The NELFund loan funds institutional fees paid directly to the campus and a monthly upkeep allowance of N20,000 paid to the student.

The repayment process for the loans begins two years after a recipient completes youth service, provided they are employed.

NELFund said 10 percent of an applicant’s earnings is to be deducted by an employer and remitted until the loan is fully refunded.

“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,” he added.

“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.”

Asked about glitches and the complexity of the application process, Sawyerr said NELFund disallowed human interface to avoid graft.

“We’re using an electronic process and specific identifiers that make it unique to the individual. JAMB numbers, NIN, BVN, and matriculation numbers. The individual goes online to provide us with that information,” he added.

“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.

“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.

“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.”