The Federal Government has announced that the Nigeria Education Loan Fund portal for qualified students would open ip in March.
Dr. Akintunde Sawyer, the Executive Secretary, NELFund, who made this announcement during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Thursday in Abuja had encouraged eligible students to register to access the fund.
Recall that President Bola Tinubu had on June 12, 2023, signed the Access to Higher Education Bill into law to permit indigent students to access interest-free loans to pursue their education in any Nigerian tertiary institution of their choice.
The scheme had been slated to commence between September and October 2023, but owing to unforeseen circumstances, the timeline was revised to January.
Sawyer, who gave reasons for the delay in commencing the scheme as was earlier planned, had explained that the process was a technical one and therefore needed all the imperative measures to be put in place for proper execution.
In Sawyer’s words:
“The take-off date is this month (March) and the reason for the delay is because we are trying to get it right. This [scheme] is not a political programme where we say, oh! we are just going to do it, it doesn’t matter how it’s gonna work.‘This is a programme that will probably run beyond me as a human being, not even as a Secretary in government now. This is something that we want to run adequately, so we have to get it right at the onset.’ he said.
Sawyer also reiterated President Tinubu’s promise to ensure that lack of finance did not pose a reason for any student in Nigeria to halt their education at a tertiary level as the scheme is designed for indigent Nigerian students in tertiary institutions and all applications will be dond online.
“Based on the data they [prospective students] input and their answers to the questions, the system will be able to determine correctly, whether they are eligible to apply or not,’’ Sawyer had explained.
Finally, he stated that the recovery process from beneficiaries of the NELFund would begin two years after the National Youth Service Scheme, according to the Federal Government.
