Federal Government Postpones Students Loan Scheme

The Federal Government has postponed the opening of the Nigeria Education Loan Fund (NELFund) portal from January to March 2024.

President Bola Tinubu signed the Access to Higher Education Bill into law on June 12, 2023. The scheme was created to enable indigent students to gain access to interest-free loans for their academic pursuits in tertiary institutions.

It was supposed to commence between September and October 2023.

The government was not able to get the scheme into full gear in 2023 and announced January 2024 as the new date for its commencement.

However, the government failed to start the program in January and has now moved it to March as skepticism grows around the actualization of the educational reform.

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The Executive Secretary of NELFund, Dr. Akintunde Sawyerr, urged eligible students to register for the fund while discussing it with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja on Thursday.

He disclosed that the delay in starting the scheme earlier was a technical problem, and in their bid to ensure they “get it right.”

“The take-off date is this month (March), and the reason for the delay is that we are trying to get it right,” Dr. Akintunde said.

“This is not a political program where we say, ‘Oh, we are just going to do it; it doesn’t matter how it works.’

“This is a program that will probably run beyond me as a human being, not even as a secretary. This is something that we want to run adequately, so we have to get it right.”

Dr. Akintunde further disclosed that NELFund has “decided that all applicants should be able to access this scheme regardless of where they are, who they are, and who they know.”

He also promised a “fair” process for applicants.