STUDENTS across several tertiary institutions in Nigeria rejoice as they receive alert of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND).
The NELFUND, established by the Students Loan Act 2023 is managed and administered by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) through the money deposit banks. It aims to facilitate the mobilisation of funds to provide interest-free loans to students of tertiary institutions.
Beneficiaries are expected to begin a repayment process of 10% of their salary to be deducted at source two years after the completion of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), while self-employed beneficiaries are required to remit the same of their monthly profit.
Established by the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration as a means of providing financial support to students for tertiary education, the management of NELFUND said it has so far disbursed N11,047,793,949.80 billion to 105,764 beneficiaries across 98 federal and state tertiary institutions.
The disbursement of funds is made directly to the institutions bank accounts while successful applicants are entitled to a monthly stipend of N20,000 for upkeep if they so wish.
This newspaper reports that in August, the NELFUND had released data that showed significant regional disparities in the registration, application and disbursement of funds with the South-east recording the lowest figure.
Netizens on X had accused NELFUND of neglecting universities in the South-east but the Fund refuted the claim, saying the management of tertiary institutions in the South-east had failed to respond to verification requests forwarded to them.
The latest data released by NELFUND on November 7, shows that the South-west has the highest number of beneficiary institutions with 27 currently getting disbursements. This is followed by the North-west which has 18 institutions while the North-east has 16 and the South-south has 15 institutions. The North-central and South-east have 11 institutions each.
On the number of students by zone, the North-west has the highest number of students with 43,378 followed by North-east with 28, 782 and the South-west with 12,539. The North-central has 11,555 beneficiaries while the South-south has 5,837 and South-east has 4,073.
The breakdown of the funding by zones, also shows that the highest of N4,424,024,250 billion was paid to the 18 institutions in the North-west, followed by the16 institutions in the North-east which got N2,544,223,937 billion, then the 27 institutions in the South-west received N1,842,876,713billion. The 11 institutions in the North-central got N1,099,808,700 billion, while the15 in the South-south got N597,250,030 million and the 11 institutions in the South-east received 539,610,320 million.
This newspaper reports that poor registration from some parts of the country had led to a massive sensitisation tour by NELFUND at tertiary institutions across the country. The sensitisation trail which began from the South-east according to the NELFUND’s X handle was designed to reach every zone.
NELFUND’s Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Akintunde Sawyerr said last month that the Fund had been proactive in reaching out to segments of the nation that feel left behind, particularly the South-east.
However, some students in the South-east said they were oblivious of the loan initiative while others said they were not interested.
Miss Chidinma Obiolu, a student of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Igbiariam, said she was not aware of any federal government’s loan initiative.
Also, Chukwunoso Nnoruka of Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, said he was not aware of the loan, saying that he would be interested in it. Nnoruka, who is a student of continuing education programme (CEP) said nobody told them about the loan.
Mr Chinemerem Nwafor, a final year student of Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, said he knew about the student loan but had no interest in applying for it. “Most of us are aware of the student loan but it appears that we are not interested in the loan,” he said.