FG disburses N12bn student loans to beneficiaries — NELFUND

The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has disbursed N12 billion loans to qualified students across various Tertiary Institutions nationwide since its inception.

The Managing Director of the Fund, Akintunde Sawyer disclosed this in Abuja while speaking during an oversight visit by the House of Representatives Committee on Student Loans and Higher Education Financing.

He said that the Agency has so far received 610, 000 applications out of which 321, 000 applications have been processed and some approved and sent to the institutions for validation.

Sawyer further explained that the agency had received 400,000 registrations while 120,000 individuals have received stipends.

He added that the Agency processes over 2,000 applications daily and was committed to ensuring fairness in loan disbursement across all regions.

He further disclosed that 52,000 additional loans were approved last week for disbursement to institutions and individuals.

While highlighting the challenges facing the Agency, Sawyerr stated that managing a fund of this size without face-to-face interactions posed risks of fraud.

According to him, “to mitigate this, the agency meticulously reviews each application individually. “We have 610, 000 that we have looked at to date. We have 321,000 applications that we have looked at, some of which we have approved and have sent off to the institutions to do validation. Last week we approved further 52 institutions for disbursement and payment to the institutions and to the individual because as you all know we also pay in stipend.

“Before an individual can apply for the loan they have to register. We have just over 400, 000 registrations. The registration process simply say I am here and these are all my validation checks. It stops short of them actually applying for the loan itself.

“Exposure in terms of what we have disbursed so far is about 12 billion. I believe we are going to be doing some further disbursements this week which will take that number to about 20 billion. We have something in the region of 120,000 people who have actually received stipends or about to.”

In his remarks, the Chairman of the House Committee on Student Loans and Higher Education Financing, Hon. Gboyega Isiaka, who commended the management of NELFUND expressed delight at agency’s progress within the short time it was established.

He also acknowledged areas for improvement and pledged the committee’s continued support and oversight.

Isiaka commented the student loan initiative as a positive step by the presidency.

He stressed the need for increased sensitization, particularly in southern Nigeria, where application numbers were lower than expected.