The Federal Government has announced March as the definitive opening month for the Nigeria Education Loan Fund (NELFund) portal, allowing eligible students to access financial assistance. Akintunde Sawyerr, the Executive Secretary of NELFund, revealed this during an interview with journalists in Abuja on Thursday, encouraging eligible students to register and access the fund.
This development follows President Bola Tinubu’s signing of the Access to Higher Education Bill into law on June 12, 2023. The bill aims to provide interest-free loans to indigent students pursuing education in Nigerian tertiary institutions. Although the scheme was initially scheduled to commence between September and October 2023, unforeseen circumstances led to a revised timeline, pushing the start date to January.
In the recent interview, Sawyerr attributed the delay in launching the scheme to technical considerations, emphasizing the need to ensure proper execution through meticulous planning and preparation. He reiterated President Tinubu’s commitment to eliminating financial barriers hindering students’ pursuit of higher education in Nigeria.
The NELFund scheme targets indigent Nigerian students in tertiary institutions, with applications to be submitted online to ensure fairness and transparency. Sawyerr stressed the importance of a meticulous and unbiased process, emphasizing that all applicants, regardless of their background, should have equal access to the scheme.
He explained, “We want this to be a process that is fair to all, and we will advertise the portal widely so that applicants will be able to go to the website to fill out a series of forms and answer certain questions. Based on the data they input and their answers to the questions, the system will be able to determine appropriately, whether they are eligible to apply or not.”