The Managing Director of Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), Mr. Akintunde Sawyerr, has said the fund has so far disbursed a total of N110 billion to students in public institutions across the country.

Sawyerr, who disclosed this while speaking to journalists during inauguration and induction of members of NELFUND Servicom in Abuja on Tuesday, said the figures keep changing as the Fund makes disbursement frequently.

“We’ve just approved a new batch, N110 billion, that is going to students in one form or another. About 60 per cent of that is going directly to their institution in full, because we pay 100 per cent of fees. 40 per cent has been disbursed in terms of their actual upkeep. The upkeep figure is slightly behind the total fee.

 “We estimate that amongst the constituency that we’re responsible for, people in tertiary institutions that are government owned, which are defined as universities, polytechnics and colleges of education, and the rafts of students that are going to be coming in for the next session, we estimate that our commitment to date is to people somewhere in the region of 2.1 million. It’s an estimate, and it gets bigger than that when we start our skills programme, because there we have a lot more.”

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The Managing Director explained that there is a two-pronged process and that before anyone can apply for a loan, they have to register.

“We have about 417,000 students who have registered on our portal with the details we have, and about 328,000 students who have actually applied.

“Some of them have been processed, many of them have been looked at and most of them will get the loan. But it’s important to also mention that we are growing by about 1,000 applications a day. At the height of it, we had 9,000 applications in one day.

“I should also mention at this stage that those who register may choose not to go ahead and apply, or may want to get more information, but at least they’re captured in the system, they know they’re in the system. So that’s why you have this gap between 417,000 registrants and 328,000 applicants. We often find that the number of applicants is ahead of the number of registrants, which means that people are suddenly deciding or making up their minds to then apply after they’ve registered.”

Speaking on the repayment plan, he said the repayment terms are very interesting and probably the best repayment terms for a loan anywhere.

“So students who apply for this loan today get an interest-free loan. What they apply for and are given or benefit from is exactly what they will pay back. It’s interesting because they don’t pay it back immediately. What happens is that two years after National Youth Service is complete, they are then obliged to report to us their status in terms of employment,” he said.

In her remarks, the National Coordinator for SEVICOM, Nnenna Akajemeli, said setting up a SEVICOM unit for NELFUND would help the inductees to run the government business.

“As they said, they are positioning the office further to ensure that all government has set them up to do as the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, that they do it to the letter: to touch the lives of students, especially those who do not have access to funds for their higher education, increase access to funds in higher institutions,” she said.

She said SERVICOM is mandated to reach out to indigent Nigerians who are brilliant and ready to go to school but do not have access to funds.

“They have to manage this process and ensure that they bring about quality graduates, even from the work that they do in this office,” she added.