Student loan: UI receives N201m for 1,370 students

The University of Ibadan (UI) has received N201 million institutional fees from the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), for the payment of fees of students who forwarded their applications to the Fund.

The university, in a circular by the Registrar, G.O Salisu, and addressed to the Office of the Dean of Student Affairs, said students who applied for the loan but had earlier paid their fees can now apply for a refund.

The circular read in part: “The Nigerian Education Loan Fund has remitted the sum of N201m to the institution’s account for the 2023/2024 academic session. This amount is to cover the fees of 1,370 UI students who applied for the loan.

“The bursary department is currently processing the fund to enable the concerned students obtain smart receipt.”It, however, clarified that any student who is a beneficiary of the NELFUND loan but has already paid levies for the session is entitled to a refund.

To apply for a refund, it directed the affected student to write the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) through the Dean of Students. The student loan scheme is President Bola Tinubu’s flagship initiative in the education sector.

Barely a month after his inauguration, Tinubu signed the Access to Higher Education Act, which created a legal framework for granting loans to indigent students to facilitate the payment of their fees in Nigerian tertiary institutions. The law established NELFUND, which is saddled with the responsibility of handling all loan requests, grants, disbursement and recovery.