The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) reports that 30,000 students have successfully enrolled for the student loan scheme, with over 60,000 individuals registering on the fund’s website.
Akintunde Sawyerr, NELFUND Managing Director, announced this during a press briefing in Abuja on Thursday.
On June 12, 2023, President Bola Tinubu signed the Access to Higher Education Act, 2023 into law, which allows indigent students to obtain interest-free loans for their educational pursuits at any Nigerian higher institution.
According to Dele Alake, a member of the then-Presidential Strategy Team, the move was in ” fulfillment of one of his campaign promises to liberalise education funding.”
Although the government initially announced that the scheme would be launched in September, it suffered several delays leading to an indefinite postponement in early March.
The Presidency had linked the delay to Tinubu’s directive to expand the scheme to include loans for vocational skills.
After receiving a briefing from the NELFUND team led by the Minister of State for Education, Dr. Yusuf Sununu, on January 22, the President had directed the Fund to extend interest-free loans to Nigerian students interested in skill-development programmes.