NELFund Loans: Over 850,000 Students Already Credited-Sawyer

  Over eight hundred and fifty thousand Nigerian students in public tertiary institutions across the country have received loans from the student loan scheme initiated by the Tinubu administration.

This was disclosed in Abuja by the managing director/Chief Executive Officer (MD/CEO) of the Nigerian Education Loan fund, NELFund, Akintude Sawyer, during a media interview.

Sawyer, who was speaking on a radio programme, Wetin Tinubu Don Do Sef, organized by the Hope Alive Initiative, HAI, a pro-good governance group, also disclosed that the scheme is now processing the application of over 7 million potential beneficiaries in readiness for the 2027 academic year.  

Explaining further, the NELFund boss explained that the figure represents 20 per cent of young Nigerians that would have been out of school over lack of funds, adding that the scheme has dispensed N285bn to beneficiaries since its inception in 2024.

Sawyer noted that the loan scheme is very dear to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a reason why he insisted on removing all possible bottlenecks on the way of easy access for the beneficiaries, hence he had to return the initial enabling laws to the national assembly because it had a clause that provided for a guarantor.   

"The first law that set up the scheme provided for a guarantor. The president did not like that hence he did not approve it because it would create room for middlemen and gate-fee collectors. He had to send it back to the National Assembly to remove the clause. That was the clearest indication that he was ready to fight in order for voiceless young Nigerians to have an education,” Sawyer noted.   

According to him, NELFund took certain deliberate steps to ensure that the scheme is devoid of avoidable banana peels and sharp practices, one of which was to ensure that the loans are processed electronically and transferred directly to schools through the Central Bank.  

“We realised that Mr President’s desire is to have a fraud-proof scheme. What we did was to ensure that application and disbursement are done electronically. We simply take out the need to fill papers. Beneficiaries only have to provide their names, JAMB, BVN matric numbers and other important details through online applications. 

“Everything is done online. We pay beneficiaries through the central Bank.”  

Sawyer provided further clarifications about the various aspects of the scheme. According to him, the loans are treated separately depending on the number of times each beneficiary applied. He added that a total of 1.5 million loans were disbursed between 2024 and 2025 to 850,000 students.  

“Some students applied once (2024) while others twice (2024 and 2025). We count the loans separately where one beneficiary received it twice. “So far, we have released 1.5 million loans to 850,000 students. However, we still have about 1.7 pending applications,” he revealed.  

Established in 2024, the NELFund student loan is designed to help indigent students in public tertiary institutions take care of their education finances in order to ensure that none of them drops out of school for reasons of funds.

Repayment is expected to begin two years after the individual beneficiary has completed his or her mandatory national service and is gainfully employed. However, only 10% of the loan is expected to be paid each month until the sum is paid off