NELFUND MD: N110bn approved for student loan scheme

The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has approved a total of N110 billion which would be disbursed to students in public institutions across the country, its Managing Director, Akintunde Sawyerr, has said. 

Sawyerr said about 60 per cent of the funds would be paid as tuition fees while 40 per cent has been disbursed to the students as their upkeep allowance. 

The NELFUND boss, who disclosed this while speaking to journalists during the inauguration and induction of members of NELFUND Servicom unit in Abuja on Tuesday, said the figure keeps changing as they make disbursement frequently.

Sawyerr said: “We’ve just approved a new batch, N110 billion, that is going to students in one form or another. About 60 per cent of that is going directly to their institution in full, because we pay 100 per cent of fees. 40 per cent has been disbursed in terms of their actual upkeep. The upkeep figure is slightly behind the total fee.

“We estimate that amongst the constituency that we’re responsible for, people in tertiary institutions that are government owned, which are defined as universities, polytechnics and colleges of education, and the rafts of students that are going to be coming in for the next session, we estimate that our commitment to date is to people somewhere in the region of 2.1 million. 

“It’s an estimate, and it gets bigger than that when we start our skills programme, because there we have a lot more.”

The Managing Director explained that of the 417,000 students who have registered on its portal, about 328,000 students who have actually applied.

Sawyerr added that some of the loan applications have been processed, adding that most of the applicants will get the loan. 

He said: “We have about 417,000 students who have registered on our portal with the details we have, and about 328,000 students who have actually applied.

“Some of them have been processed, many of them have been looked at and most of them will get the loan. But it’s important to also mention that we are growing by about 1,000 applications a day. At the height of it, we had 9,000 applications in one day.

“I should also mention at this stage that those who register may choose not to go ahead and apply, or may want to get more information, but at least they’re captured in the system, they know they’re in the system. So that’s why you have this gap between 417,000 registrants and 328,000 applicants. We often find that the number of applicants is ahead of the number of registrants, which means that people are suddenly deciding or making up their minds to then apply after they’ve registered.”

Speaking on the repayment plan, Sawyerr said: “So students who apply for this loan today get an interest-free loan. What they apply for and are given or benefit from is exactly what they will pay back. It’s interesting because they don’t pay it back immediately. What happens is that two years after National Youth Service is complete, they are then obliged to report to us their status in terms of employment.”

 National Coordinator of SEVICOM, Nnenna Akajemeli said setting up a SEVICOM unit for NLFUND was to help the inductees to run the government business as they stand as the customer service arm of running business.

She said the inauguration of the unit spoke volumes as to what they are prepared to do in terms of service delivery and provisions to all the citizens and stakeholders.

“As they said, they are positioning the office further to ensure that all government has set them up to do as the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, that they do it to the letter, to touch the lives of students, especially those who do not have access to funds for their higher education, increasing access to funds and education funds in higher institutions,” she said.

She said members of the unit are mandated to reach out to indigent students, Nigerians who are brilliant, who are ready to go to school but do not have access to funds. 

“They have to manage this process and ensure that they bring about quality graduates, even from the work that they do in this office,” she added. 

https://thenationonlineng.net/nelfund-md-n110bn-approved-for-student-loan-scheme/