The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) managing director, Akintunde Sawyerr, states that federal tertiary institution students will be given priority when the programme is implemented.
The student loan re-enactment measure was signed into law by President Bola Tinubu on April 3, several months after the initial enactment was condemned for its onerous criteria.
May 24 is the day that the student loan portal is expected to be operational.
Students from federal universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education whose data has been uploaded by their institutions can start applying on May 24, according to Sawyerr, who made this announcement on Monday at a news conference in Abuja.
“This student loan scheme is available to students who are in government institutions at the tertiary level,” he said.
“It’s generally for those who are attending or have placements at universities, polytechnics, technical colleges, and colleges of education that belong to the government.
“To begin with, we’re going to start with federal institutions because it’s a programme that we have to roll out in phases.
“It will eventually be rolled out to state-owned institutions, and as you will discover, we will also begin a programme on loan provision for those who want to acquire vocational skills of vocational qualifications.”
Sawyerr noted that the fees being paid through the loan would be sent directly to the institution and not the student.
He added that it would be paid per session and not all at once.
“We’ll pay a session at a time because people drop out of institutions, they change institutions, and they change their minds about the courses they want to do. So we will limit our risk by just paying for that one session,” he said.
“We will also make a monthly payment to the individual who’s studying because there’s a recognition that just paying the fee alone may not be sufficient.
“That figure for this will be capped, and we will look very closely at each application and then make a decision based on a number of factors.”
