Finance Minister Taiwo Oyedele has urged Nigerian parents to check whether their children have applied for or received funding from the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), suggesting some students may be accessing the scheme without their families’ knowledge.
Oyedele made the remark at a media briefing in Abuja on Wednesday after an audience member said his three children in tertiary institutions had not benefited from NELFUND and that he was unaware of friends who had received funding.
“It is possible they’ve collected the money, and they are collecting from you,” Oyedele said, urging the parent to ask his children whether they had applied and to demand evidence of their applications. He also encouraged parents to help eligible students apply if they had not already done so.
The minister said the scheme goes beyond tuition payments, with eligible students also receiving monthly upkeep support. He said students could access funding of up to ₦1.5 million under the programme.
NELFUND’s August 8 student-loan dashboard showed that the fund had processed 1,659,853 applications, while cumulative disbursements reached ₦322.69 billion. Of that amount, ₦192.89 billion had been paid directly to 319 tertiary institutions as institutional fees, while ₦129.80 billion had been disbursed to students as upkeep allowances.
The scale of the programme represents a sharp expansion from earlier in the year. In March, NELFUND reported disbursements of ₦206.29 billion to 1,164,222 beneficiaries.
NELFUND financing is an interest-free loan, not a grant. The scheme is designed to cover eligible institutional charges and provide upkeep support to students in higher education.
Repayment does not begin immediately after graduation. Under NELFUND’s repayment terms, beneficiaries generally have a two-year moratorium after completing the National Youth Service Corps programme, with repayment beginning thereafter when they are employed. Salary deductions can be made at source in accordance with the scheme’s repayment provisions.
The rapid expansion of NELFUND is increasing its importance in Nigeria’s tertiary education system, particularly for students who might otherwise struggle to meet the cost of higher education.
But the programme’s growing financial commitments also make transparency, accurate communication with beneficiaries and an effective repayment framework increasingly important.
With more than ₦322 billion already disbursed and applications continuing to rise, NELFUND has moved beyond its initial rollout phase. Its long-term success will depend on whether it can expand access while ensuring students clearly understand that the financial support they receive is a loan that ultimately carries a repayment obligation.
