Releases N218m for 3,575 students in Zaria, Ibadan

The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) said a verification portal designed to prevent students from collecting school fees from their families after benefiting from the loan scheme is underway.

Disclosing this to newsmen yesterday in Abuja, the fund’s Managing Director and Chief Executive, Akintunde Sawyerr, explained that parents would be able to verify their children’s payment status by simply entering their matriculation numbers in the portal.

The platform would then display whether the fees have been paid or are outstanding, Sawyerr said, adding that the initiative was part of efforts to strengthen transparency and prevent students from receiving financial support from both the fund and their parents for the same tuition fees.

In the meantime, NELFUND has disbursed N218.2 million to 3,575 students of the Federal College of Agriculture, Moor Plantation, Ibadan, Oyo State, and the Federal University of Education, Zaria, Kaduna State, to cover institutional fees for various academic sessions.

According to Sawyerr, the parents’ portal was in response to concerns that some students whose tuition had been covered by NELFUND continued to collect money from their parents without disclosing their funding status.

The development comes as the fund introduces a digital wallet system that will enable beneficiaries to authorise the payment of approved tuition fees directly to their institutions, in a move to end duplicate payments and the difficulties associated with obtaining refunds from schools.

Under the arrangement, approved fees would be credited to a digital wallet linked to the beneficiary’s institution. Students can then authorise payment directly to their schools without receiving the money in cash or having it transferred into their personal bank accounts.

Sawyerr said the system would prevent the diversion of tuition funds, as each digital token would be tied to a specific institution and can only be used for the designated school.

The NELFUND Executive Director, Mustapha Iyal, said the wallet-based payment system was undergoing pilot implementation, with over 400,000 applications in the system at the time of the briefing.

Meanwhile, the Provost of the Ibadan institution, Prof. Jonathan Atungwu, disclosed that N54.21 million was released to 360 students in four tranches between August 2025 and April 2026, and covers the 2024/2025 and 2025/2026 academic sessions.

Similarly, the Vice Chancellor of the Zaria institution, Prof. Yahaya Bunkure, confirmed receiving N163.99 million in eight tranches between December 2025 and February 2026 for students’ registration fees for the 2025/2026 academic session.