The Nigerian Education Loan Fund has commenced efforts to integrate its portal with those of higher institutions to ease the verification process for student loan applicants.
The Executive Director of Operations at NELFUND, Mustapha Iyal, made this known during a sensitisation programme held at the University of Ilorin for tertiary institutions in Kwara State on Tuesday.
Iyal explained that the initiative was aimed at eliminating challenges faced by students during the verification process.
“We observed that one of the problems we have is that of verification. So, what NELFUND is trying to do is engage institutions directly by linking NELFUND activities to their portals,”he said.
According to him, once the integration is completed, students will be able to select their preferred mode of payment—including NELFUND—while registering for their courses.
“By doing that, when a student is trying to register in school, they can select whether they want to pay via NELFUND, cash, or other means,” he explained.
“If the student opts to pay with NELFUND, they will fill in the application with their details, which are already on the institutional portals, so they don’t have to go to the NELFUND portal. That is the kind of synergy we are looking at.”
Addressing complaints raised by students regarding the loan process, Iyal assured that efforts were being made to make the entire process seamless.
“We have already started working on the issues. We work 24 hours, and we are always there for the students,” he said.
Speaking at the event, the National Association of Nigerian Students representative on the NELFUND board, Umar Farouk, described the initiative as a game-changer for underprivileged students.
“One of the campaign promises of President Bola Tinubu is the student loan, and I am happy to say that the student loan fund is here to stay,” he said.
“Nigerians can now get to understand that children of nobody can now access higher education easily. With access to student loans, everyone now has the ease to go to school.”
The student loan scheme is one of the flagship projects of President Tinubu’s administration in the education sector. Barely a month after his inauguration, he signed the Access to Higher Education Act, which provides a legal framework for granting loans to indigent or low-income students in Nigerian tertiary institutions.
