- Says Target Is To Build A Fair Society Built On Successful Inclusiveness
- Students Starting Fresh Session To Be Paid Next Week – NELFund Boss
- Over 110,000 Students Have Successfully Applied To Scheme
After a long delay occasioned by intermittent postponements, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Wednesday July 17, 2024 at the Council Chamber of State House, Abuja finally launched the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFund) scheme.
The historic event was witnessed by high-ranking government officials including Senate President Godswill Akpabio, Speaker of the House of Representatives Tajudeen Abbas, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, some ministers, heads of agencies, and members of the board and management team of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund led by the board chairman, Jim Ovia and the Executive Secretary of NELFUND, Akintunde Sawyerr amongst others.
The student loan scheme seeks to provide financial support, including school fees and stipends, to eligible students nationwide.
Over 1.2 million students are expected to benefit from the first phase of the programme.
During the ceremony on Wednesday, President Tinubu emphasised his administration’s commitment to inclusiveness and ensuring sufficient funding to sustain the programme.
“Democracy is all about inclusiveness,” Tinubu stated, underscoring his administration’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
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He added, “Our target is to build a fair society that is built on successful inclusiveness.”
The President highlighted education as a crucial tool for national development, describing it as “the greatest weapon against poverty in any society.”
Tinubu also stressed that education is essential for vision, development, and successfully combating insecurity, including terrorism and banditry.
In symbolising the programme’s commencement, President Tinubu presented loan cheques to students from each of Nigeria’s six geo-political zones.
He also handed over cheques to the Vice Chancellors of Bayero University of Kano and the Federal University of Technology, Owerri.
Meanwhile, Sawyerr has disclosed that students of tertiary institutions who have successfully applied for the Federal Government’s loan scheme and who are starting fresh academic sessions will begin to receive credit alerts from next week.
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“The people who are going to first receive alerts as early as next week are the people who are about to start a new session in the institution they are in,” NELFUND Managing Director Akintunde Sawyerr said on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Wednesday.
He said other successful applicants won’t begin to receive credit alerts until the commencement of academic sessions in their respective institutions.
Sawyerr said the programme is aimed at giving Nigeria “better leadership in the future and improve the socio-economic situation of the country”.
“To be precise, about 110,000 students have successfully applied. They’ve put in their applications and verified as being bona fide and eligible applicants. But we’ll still carry out further verification to make sure they are well-qualified to receive these loans. But over 110,000 are likely to begin to receive disbursement from next week,” he said.
“It’s one thing to get approval for the loan, it’s another thing to begin to receive value. This loan is for those who are going to be starting institutions afresh or those who are already there.”
Sawyerr said each of the applicants must have Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) numbers, matric numbers, Bank Verification Numbers (BVN), and National Identification Numbers (NIN), among other requirements.
“Current exposure to students is about N35bn. We’ve got much more than that sitting in our accounts that we can disburse, and we’ve also got some funding on the way. Remember, we are getting 1% of Federal Inland Revenue Service taxes and we also can receive funding from other sources,” the NELFUND boss explained.
