The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has announced that it has started disbursing upkeep allowances to 11,685 students who were previously unpaid for the 2024/2025 academic session.
The Fund explained that the unpaid allowances, amounting to ₦927 million, were uncovered during a routine reconciliation exercise conducted by its team on student upkeep payments.
The Managing Director of the Fund, Akintunde Sawyerr, stated this at a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday.
Sawyerr explained that the challenges were caused by a range of technical and operational issues encountered during processing, including temporary network downtime, unsuccessful transactions and situations in which bank account details could not be properly validated at the time of payment.
He said, “In line with the President’s directive on accountability and efficiency in public service, management has approved a one-time, focused reconciliation process to resolve all outstanding cases.
“This includes direct engagement with affected students, a defined grace period for updating or providing alternative bank account details, multi-layer validation involving IT, client support, audit and finance teams, and prompt payment once validation is completed.
“Our objective is straightforward: every eligible student must receive what is due to them, accurately, transparently and without delay.”
He said no fewer than 864,798 students have benefited from the Federal Government’s student loan scheme, with total disbursements reaching ₦161.97 billion.
A breakdown of the funds released indicates that ₦89.94 billion was paid directly to 263 tertiary institutions to cover tuition and other institutional charges, while ₦72 billion was disbursed straight to students as upkeep allowances.
The MD also announced plans to deepen the impact of its student loan scheme by expanding engagement to parents, guardians and traditional institutions across the country.
According to him, the new phase of the outreach will involve direct engagement with traditional rulers, community leaders, parents and faith-based organisations to improve awareness and understanding of the scheme.
While stressing that the Fund would take its sensitisation campaigns to churches, mosques, motor parks and other community spaces nationwide as part of efforts to reach the grassroots, he explained that the initiative is aimed at ensuring families fully understand the student loan programme, build trust in the process and are empowered to support their children in accessing higher education, as it continues to broaden participation in the scheme.
For his part, the Executive Director, Operations, NELFUND, Mustapha Iyal, disclosed that 325 tertiary institutions have so far been onboarded for the 2025/2026 academic session, with 3.7 million eligible students.
He also stated that while 283,275 applications for the current session have been verified, 13,026 others were rejected.
