NELFUND moves to stop students collecting loans while parents pay fees

The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) is taking measures to prevent students from taking advantage of its loan scheme while their parents continue to pay for their school fees. Managing Director Akintunde Sawyerr announced this during a press briefing on Wednesday. Sawyerr revealed that the fund had identified cases where students were using the loan scheme while still relying on their parents for tuition payments.

This practice, dubbed "double-dipping", prompted NELFUND to strengthen transparency and educate all stakeholders about changes to the payment system.

Sawyerr stated that the fund would introduce a system where parents could confirm whether their children's school fees had been paid without disclosing the exact amounts. This move aims to clarify the payment process for parents while ensuring they understand the procedure. The announcement comes as the Federal Government continues to implement its student loan programme, designed to reduce financial barriers to tertiary education in Nigeria.

The new arrangement involves coordination between NELFUND, tertiary institutions, and financial service providers. The fund will organize re-education workshops across the six geopolitical zones to explain the changes to stakeholders and address misunderstandings about the scheme's operation. Sawyerr emphasized that this is not typical sensitisation but rather a re-education process to ensure all parties are aware of the revised processes.

To streamline the payment system, Sawyerr explained that NELFUND uses students' application identification numbers and wallet numbers for institutional fee transfers, avoiding the use of bank account numbers. The payment for upkeep allowances is handled separately and transferred to students' personal bank accounts via external channels such as NIBSS Instant Payments and Paystack.

Iyal, the Executive Director of NELFUND, revealed that about 400,000 students participated in the pilot phase, with an additional 20,000 students added in the following week. The fund processes transactions for nearly 5,000 students daily using a tokenised arrangement linked to each student's application identification number.