NELFUND to stop students collecting loans while parents still pay fees
- NELFUND says some students take its loans while their parents still pay their school fees.
- The fund plans a way for parents to confirm fees were paid, without seeing the amount.
- It will hold re-education workshops in all six zones; the pilot covers about 400,000 students.
The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) says it will move against students who collect its loans while their parents are still paying their school fees.
Its Managing Director, Akintunde Sawyerr, said on Wednesday that the fund had found cases of students allegedly getting loan support while still leaning on their parents for tuition.
He called the practice double-dipping and said it would stop. "We are going to put an end to that," Sawyerr told a press briefing in Abuja.
For many Nigerian families, school fees are one of the heaviest yearly costs. The loan scheme was set up to make tertiary education easier to afford, so parents should not be paying twice for the same fees.
What parents will be able to check
Under the plan, parents will be able to confirm whether their child's school fees have been paid through NELFUND, without being told the amount involved.
Sawyerr said the aim is to give clarity to parents who remain financially responsible for their children's education.
NELFUND will also hold re-education workshops across the six geopolitical zones for students, parents and tertiary institutions. Sawyerr said this goes beyond the fund's usual awareness campaigns, which mainly tell students the scheme exists.
"This is not sensitisation. This is re-education of the stakeholders and the students as to the changes that we have made in their favour," he said.
He asked the media to help spread the message, noting the workshops may not reach every student who needs the information.
How the payments work
NELFUND's Executive Director, Mustapha Iyal, said school fees are paid using students' application identification numbers and wallet numbers, not their bank account numbers.
Upkeep allowances are handled separately and go to students' personal bank accounts through channels such as NIBSS Instant Payments and Paystack, because the fund is not a bank and cannot open accounts for students. Iyal said this can sometimes cause delays, depending on the financial institution.
He said the pilot phase covered about 400,000 students, with roughly 20,000 more added between the previous week and the week of the briefing. The system handles transactions for almost 5,000 students daily.
Students can already download receipts from the NELFUND platform once their fees are processed, though schools still issue their own receipts for registration and other academic steps.
What happens next: NELFUND has not given dates for the workshops or for when the new parent-check arrangement will start. Students and parents should watch the fund's channels for details.
