NELFUND has paid #24b as loan, upkeep for 335,000 students

More than N18.5 billion has been paid to tertiary institutions as student loans, the Managing Director of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), Mr. Akintude Sawyerr, has confirmed.

Sawyerr, who spoke on a TVC programme monitored yesterday by our reporter, said additional N5.5 billion has been paid directly to 115,000 students as pocket cash.

He said the payments covered the fees and upkeep of the 335,000 students who have benefitted from the loan initiative since its takeoff last year.

Sawyerr explained that as soon as NELFUND receives an application for the student, a certain amount of money is earmarked to cover the application.

He said: “As soon as people apply for the loan we earmark a certain amount of money to make sure that we can cover them. Beyond that we have to follow a process to ensure that we are paying the right people the right amount of money at the right time.

“Currently, we have disturbed N18.5 billion to institutions. They have received that amount of money in their accounts. The upkeep is paid monthly. We have disbursed about N5.5 billion so far for students upkeep.

“Every month that (amount) goes up. We are getting increased applications. The upkeep allowance goes directly into the students’ bank accounts.

“But as I said that number is growing daily. As we approve, we sign off, the funds get disbursed.

“On top of that we are getting new applications every month; we are getting increased numbers of applications.

“It is still a far cry from the 1.2 million that we set for the student loans. Today we have over 335,000 students who have benefitted from this. To get to 1.2m students is not going to take a lot but that target wasn’t set for now.

“It is an aspirational target and based on the trend we are seeing of 1,000 – 1,500 applications per day it is achievable.

“It is not just about giving people money. It is about giving them money meaningfully so that they can do the right thing, the right courses in the right institutions.

“There are some people who are laid back in applying. Not everybody wants to take a loan. This is for a variety of reasons. Some are cultural.

“Some because they don’t understand the programme fully and some because of the scepticism they have around government initiatives.

“Our job is to ensure that we remove that fear. We remove that scepticism by creating awareness and encouraging people to understand that an interest free loan is what this is.

“It doesn’t tie you or criminalise you if you don’t pay back because we don’t actually go after people who cannot pay because they don’t have the funds. Just getting that message across is the critical thing.

“Awareness is very high but the level of misunderstanding is also high. What we need to do is increase the trust between us and the general public so that they can understand that it is not just something they can dismiss.”

On how long it takes to process the loan, Sawyerr said: “Our target from application to disbursement is 30 days after the processing has been completed. It can take up to 40 days. However, it is important to recognise that there are some dependencies that we have.

“The students apply for the loan, we process them and if everything is right, we approve the loan then we send the list – because it is an online process to the institutions to verify and confirm that those students are indeed theirs.

“That process of the institutions verifying and getting back to us can take some time. So, we have those dependencies and until we receive that confirmation it doesn’t go out.

“In certain cases, it takes longer because we need that final verification from the institutions because we never meet the students.”

He said the agency had been paying students from state-owned universities since the loan scheme took-off.

Sawyerr also said postgraduate students are not allowed to apply for the loan because it is meant for vulnerable people in the society.

Sawyerr added that there are no plans to extend the loan to students in private institutions because the law does not allow it.

He said students from the North have been applying for the loan more than their counterparts from the South.

“The North has taken up the initiative and it is the right thing to do. My guess is that the north has really seen the value of education,” he stated.

According to him, students are at liberty to cancel their loan application at will.

Besides, students who have paid their fees after applying for the loan can get a refund if processed by their institutions.

The NELFUND boss also said the agency would commence its skills acquisition programme in the first quarter of this year.

He said the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration has made funds available for the training programme.