The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) said it has so far disbursed a total of N110 billion to students in public institutions across the country.
The Managing Director of NELFUND, Akintunde Sawyerr, disclosed this on Tuesday, at the inauguration and induction of members of the SERVICOM unit and committee in Abuja.
Sawyerr explained that the disbursed funds encompass institutional fees paid directly to the institutions of applicants and upkeep loans paid directly to the account number provided by the applicants.
He hinted that more students would be enrolled on the Scheme as the new academic session Commences:
“For the people we are responsible for in tertiary institutions that are government-owned such as polytechnics, universities and colleges of education and the bulk of students who will be coming in for the next session, we have estimated our commitment today to these people is somewhere in the range of 2.1m.
“It is an estimate and it gets bigger than that when we start our skills programme. That is because there we have a lot more. We are expecting that about 400,000 students will be starting this new session”, he said.
The Managing Director further disclosed that, “we estimate that amongst the constituency that we’re responsible for, people in tertiary institutions that are government owned, which are defined as universities, polytechnics and colleges of education, and the rafts of students that are going to be coming in for the next session, we estimate that our commitment to date is to people somewhere in the region of 2.1 million. It’s an estimate, and it gets bigger than that when we start our skills programme, because there we have a lot more.”
On her part, the National Coordinator for SEVICOM, Nnenna Akajemeli, said setting up a SEVICOM unit for NELFUND would help the inductees to run the government business.
“As they said, they are positioning the office further to ensure that all government has set them up to do as the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, that they do it to the letter: to touch the lives of students, especially those who do not have access to funds for their higher education, increase access to funds in higher institutions,” she said.
