The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) on Thursday, 17 July 2025, announced some additional significant impact initiatives aimed at further breaking down barriers to access to quality education for Nigerian youths, enhancing skills development, and boosting job prospects for loan beneficiaries upon graduation from school.
Announcing these initiatives during the maiden hybrid media engagement held in Abuja with journalists in Lagos connected virtually, Managing Director/Chief Executive of NELFUND, Akintunde Sawyerr, said the agency was working with the Federal Ministry of Education, National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), and National Board for Business and Technical Education (NBBTE) to ensure the successful implementation of the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) program recently launched by the Federal Government.
According to him, the synergy among the relevant agencies would also enable NELFUND to come up with some skill programs as part of the agency’s contribution to efforts by the government to accelerate the training of technical and vocational personnel needed to foster national growth and development.
We expanded our framework to include students in technical and vocational training institutions, aligning with our national employment and skills development goals, he stated.
The Executive Director (Operations) at NELFUND, Mustapha Iyal, while providing further details about the skill sets program, explained,
At this point, we are still working with the NBTE for certification and NABTEB for centre accreditation. After all these are done, we will provide more information about these skill sets. NELFUND, after the implementation, will come out with some skill programs, which will support the TVET program.
He, however, clarified that NELFUND’s skill sets program will follow the same loan scheme financing model, which is flexible and repayable two years after the post-NYSC program, reiterating that it is different from the TVET grant, which is directly handled by the education ministry.
Iyal said,
There are different things when it comes to funding. NELFUND is a loan, while the TVET program is a grant. So basically, we decided at NELFUND that we are going to harmonise with the Ministry of Education in a way that people will not misunderstand the grant and the loan models.
Sawyerr affirmed that the student loan scheme underscored President Tinubu’s passion to make access to quality education the inalienable right of every Nigerian child and the unwavering commitment of the administration to youth empowerment.
While assuring of the unwavering commitment of NELFUND to serve Nigerian youths with renewed vigour, Sawyerr declared that the student loan body has a clear understanding of its mandate and was more than prepared to do more to see every Nigerian child access quality education by removing the financial burden that could constrain them.
Our mandate is clear: to democratise access to higher education and skill development through sustainable financing. It is a bold mandate, and it comes with immense expectations. But it also comes with hope. Hope for the market woman whose daughter dreams of becoming a doctor. Hope for the young man from a rural community who aspires to build software solutions that can change the world. And hope for families across Nigeria who simply want their children to have a better chance, he asserted.
Speaking on another novel value-addition by NELFUND, the Executive Director of Finance and Administration, Dr. Oluwafemi Akinfala, disclosed that a centralised job portal to link loan beneficiaries with prospective employers in the public and private sectors both in Nigeria and overseas would be created and become operational in 2026.
Shedding light on the job portal initiative, Sawyerr explained that it was part of NELFUND’s broader support for loan beneficiaries.
We don’t just give a loan and leave the students on their own. This job portal is our way of supporting their journey towards economic stability, he said, adding that graduates who might not be able to get a job two years after the mandatory National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) did not have to worry about repayment until they were gainfully employed, but they must notify NELFUND of their status at least three months in advance by submitting a court affidavit.
If you don’t have a job, you don’t pay. And when you eventually get a job, your repayment starts, saying further that in the event of layoff or resignation from a job, the 10 percent deductions by the employee would stop, while in the event of permanent disability or death, the loan would be written off.
On the impact metrics, the NELFUND boss disclosed that since the launch on 24th May, 2024, NELFUND has disbursed a total sum of over N77 billion to cover tuition fees and upkeep allowances for 396,252 students in 210 tertiary institutions across Nigeria. The breakdown of the disbursed funds includes over N41.7 billion as paid institutional fees and over N35.3 billion as upkeep allowance. In addition, loan applications have seen a significant increase, with 675,212 registrants, out of which 645,692 students have successfully applied.
Earlier in his presentation titled ‘Unlocking Education Opportunities,’ Iyal stated that the benefits of the loan scheme to students and parents include financial access to education, regardless of income level; improved academic performance due to reduced stress; focus on studies instead of juggling multiple jobs; and a pathway to upward mobility and a better future.
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