TheCable

The federal government will open the Nigeria Education Loan Fund (NELFund) portal for eligible students in March 2024. 

Akintunde Sawyerr, executive secretary of NELFund, confirmed this in an interview with NAN on Thursday in Abuja.

The executive secretary urged eligible students to register to access the fund.

President Bola Tinubu, in June 2023, signed the Access to Higher Education Bill into law, to enable indigent students access interest-free loans to pursue their education in any Nigerian tertiary institution.

The scheme was slated to commence between September and October 2023 but did not meet the implementation timeline.

There was a revised timeline for January 2024 which also fell through.

Sawyerr said the process is technically driven and necessary measures need to be put in place for proper execution.

“The take-off date is this month (March) and the reason for the delay is that we are trying to get it right,” the NELFund boss said.

“This is not a political programme where we say, oh! we are just going to do it, it doesn’t matter how it works.

“This is a programme that will probably run beyond me as a human being, not even as a secretary.

“This is something that we want to run adequately, so we have to get it right.”

Sawyerr said the scheme is designed for indigent Nigerian students in tertiary institutions and applications will be done online.

“All applicants should be able to access this scheme regardless of where they are, who they are and who they know,” he added.

“We want this to be a process that is fair to all.

“We will advertise the portal widely so that applicants can 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 whether they are eligible.”