FG Pays Tuition for 20,000 Students Under NELFUND Scheme

The Federal Government of Nigeria has paid the tuition fees for 20,000 students in six universities under the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) scheme, part of President Bola Tinubu’s initiative to support low-income students.

Akintunde Sawyer, the Managing Director and CEO of NELFUND, announced the payment during a summit organized by the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) in Rivers State.

According to him, the fund had paid the tuition fees of 20, 000 students in six universities including, the University of Ibadan, University of Benin, University of Maiduguri, University of Ilorin, and Bayero University, Kano.

Sawyer also revealed that over 280,000 students have registered for the scheme, with about 256,000 completing the application process. He noted that delays in processing some loan applications were due to errors in registration, such as incorrect documentation and false information, which slow down the verification process.

The summit, attended by representatives of Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara, NANS leaders, and traditional rulers, was aimed at educating students about the loan scheme and gathering their feedback. The event also saw NANS commit to ongoing sensitization efforts to encourage more students to benefit from the program.

Additionally, NELFUND has recently approved an extra 22 state-owned institutions for the scheme, bringing the total number of approved institutions to 108.