The Managing Director of the Nigeria Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), Akintunde Sawyerr, has assured Nigerian students that no eligible beneficiary of the federal education loan scheme will be barred from sitting examinations, despite reports of delays at some tertiary institutions.
In an interview with Arise News on Tuesday, Sawyerr stated that NELFUND is actively engaging universities such as the University of Benin (UNIBEN) and Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) to resolve verification and disbursement issues.
He emphasised that student welfare remained the agency’s top priority.
“If there’s anything to be stressed or worried about, it is the welfare of the youth in Nigeria.
”So I welcome the stress, I welcome the worry,” he said, addressing public concerns after some final-year students were reportedly barred from exams despite claims that their tuition had been paid through NELFUND.
Sawyerr explained that the scheme, launched under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was designed to remove financial barriers to tertiary education by providing interest-free loans with flexible repayment terms.
“We started the scheme of His Excellency President Bola Tinubu, GCFR, to provide students with loans interest-free loans, with very, very soft terms to ensure that the situation we’ve had in this country for so long, where so many cannot commence tertiary education or are forced to drop out because of lack of funds, is addressed,” he said.
While NELFUND is committed to timely disbursement, Sawyerr noted that government funding requires strict institutional processes to prevent misappropriation.
“Because these systems require proper processes when you’re disbursing government funds, it is important that we use the processes we’ve designed and approved to ensure that we don’t have any sort of misappropriation of these funds,” he added.
The Managing Director highlighted the scale and complexity of the programme, noting that NELFUND has disbursed funds to 265 tertiary institutions nationwide and is processing over 1.5 million applications, with nearly one million beneficiaries receiving payments monthly.
He acknowledged operational challenges caused by differing academic calendars and verification processes at institutions.
“Students apply when they choose to apply, we don’t enforce an application date.
”Universities, polytechnics and colleges of education all set their own registration dates and examination dates, and those differ across the country,” he explained.
On verification delays, particularly at LAUTECH, Sawyerr said institutions must confirm beneficiary lists before funds can be released.
“There is a verification process which we conduct. We batch applications by institution, send them to the institutions, and we expect them to verify that list of students.
”In the case of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, over 12,000 students had to be verified and sent back to us.”
Despite these challenges, Sawyerr said NELFUND has successfully negotiated with institutions to allow affected students to sit for examinations while verification and payment processes continue.
“No, absolutely none of that [communication failure]. As I explained earlier, there are multiple deadlines, multiple applications.
It’s never going to be perfectly in sync,” he said, dismissing suggestions of communication breakdown with universities.
Sawyerr also revealed a surge in new applications as confidence in the scheme grows, reporting about 8,000 applications in the last 24 hours alone.
He reaffirmed NELFUND’s commitment to transparency, accountability, and ensuring that students with the capacity and desire to remain in school have uninterrupted access to education.
