NELFUND, South-East, the Hypocrisy and Nonchalance
By Samson Ezea
The Nigeria Education Loan Fund, NELFUND, established by the Federal Government to provide interest-free student loans to Nigerians seeking financial assistance for higher education and skills training, is undoubtedly a welcome initiative.
For many years, the rising cost of tertiary education in Nigeria has constituted a major financial barrier for students, particularly those from low-income families. The philosophy behind a national student-loan scheme is straightforward: no qualified Nigerian should be denied access to higher education simply because of an inability to pay.
Before NELFUND, Nigeria had experimented with different frameworks for student financing, including the Nigerian Education Bank initiative. However, the Federal Government eventually moved towards establishing a dedicated and sustainable student-loan system through legislation.
A major milestone was recorded under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in June 2023, when the Student Loans (Access to Higher Education) Act, 2023, was enacted. President Tinubu signed the original Student Loan Bill into law on June 12, 2023, amid commendations, scepticism and mixed reactions.
The policy was designed to provide financial assistance to students so that they could pursue their education and repay the loans when they become economically productive.
However, the 2023 legislation was not immediately operationalised in its original form. Concerns surrounding governance, eligibility, administration, application procedures, funding and repayment necessitated a review.
Consequently, the Federal Government and the National Assembly repealed and re-enacted the legislation in 2024. President Tinubu signed the Student Loans (Access to Higher Education) (Repeal and Re-enactment) Act, 2024, on April 3, 2024, establishing NELFUND in its present institutional form.
The new law introduced significant changes, including the establishment of NELFUND as a corporate body with responsibility for administering and recovering student loans; provision for tuition, institutional charges and upkeep; extension of the scheme to vocational and skills-acquisition programmes; removal of the previous family-income threshold; elimination of the guarantor requirement; and establishment of a Board of Directors and professional management structure.
The Act also provides funding mechanisms for the scheme, including an allocation of one per cent of taxes, levies and duties collected by the Federal Inland Revenue Service accruing to the Federal Government.
From legislation to actual student loans
Following the enactment of the 2024 law, NELFUND moved from a legislative concept to an operational institution.
The NELFUND student-loan portal was launched on May 24, 2024, while applications subsequently commenced for eligible students in tertiary institutions across the country. According to the Fund’s timeline, loan disbursement commenced in February 2025.
The fundamental philosophy is simple: access to education first, repayment later.
Instead of requiring students to have the money before enrolling or remaining in school, NELFUND provides financial support to eligible beneficiaries. The loans are interest-free, with repayment generally commencing when beneficiaries become gainfully employed and begin earning an income.
As beneficial and potentially transformative as the initiative is, particularly in promoting human capital development and expanding access to higher education, there appears to be inadequate awareness and sensitisation about the scheme in some parts of the country, especially the South-East.
This raises fundamental questions about the roles of political leaders, religious leaders, academics, parents, state governors, heads of tertiary institutions and members of the National Assembly in ensuring that their constituents and students take advantage of opportunities provided by the Federal Government.
Whether the apparent lack of enthusiasm is deliberate, political, conspiratorial, hypocritical or simply the result of negligence is, in my view, immaterial.
What matters is that the resources available under the scheme are Nigerian resources. They are part of the nation’s collective patrimony and do not belong to any particular geopolitical zone, political party, religion or ethnic group.
Every qualified Nigerian student has a legitimate right to benefit from the programme.
Why, therefore, is access to NELFUND apparently so low among students in South-East tertiary institutions?
Why are some leaders, heads of institutions, lecturers, parents, religious leaders and even students themselves not talking sufficiently about the scheme or encouraging young Nigerians to take advantage of it?
I ask these questions based on what I witnessed recently.
I was privileged to accompany my boss, Senator Ikeje Asogwa, and other members of the National Assembly Joint Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFund and the House of Representatives Committee on Student Loans, Scholarships and Higher Education Financing to the South-East National Sensitisation Programme on NELFUND at the Moot Auditorium, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus.
The programme brought together heads of tertiary institutions in the South-East, students, NELFUND officials and other stakeholders.
It was an incisive, interactive, informative and revealing engagement.
What particularly shocked me was the revelation by Senator Tony Nwoye, representing Anambra North Senatorial District, that the South-East reportedly ranks lowest among Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones in the number of students accessing NELFUND loans.
According to figures presented by Senator Nwoye and attributed to NELFUND, the reported beneficiaries were:
North-West — 450,000
North-East — 378,103
South-West — 360,000
North-Central — 324,908
South-South — 198,000
South-East — 108,000
If the figures are accurate, the situation should concern every stakeholder in the region.
Senator Nwoye, visibly concerned by the development, challenged heads of tertiary institutions, religious leaders, parents and students to embrace the scheme. He reminded stakeholders that the fund belongs to Nigerians and is not the property of any political party, religion or ethnic group.
Also speaking at the event, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and NELFUND, Senator Dandutse Muntari Mohammed, appealed to students and other stakeholders to embrace the scheme. He disclosed that, as part of efforts to strengthen NELFUND’s funding, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had directed that proceeds from recovered assets and unclaimed dividends, among other sources, be channelled towards funding student loans.
Why are our students staying away?
I left the programme deeply concerned.
What I find difficult to understand is why the South-East, a region renowned for its strong attachment to education and high literacy levels, should reportedly occupy the bottom position in accessing an educational opportunity of this nature.
Since the event, I have been trying to understand why awareness and participation in NELFUND appear relatively low in the region.
Recently, I spoke with a cousin of mine studying at a federal university in the North-West and asked whether he knew about NELFUND.
He answered in the affirmative.
I asked whether he had ever benefited from the scheme. He told me that he had applied once and received upkeep support, while his institutional charges were also covered, bringing the total assistance to about N490,000.
I then asked why he had stopped accessing the scheme.
His response was revealing.
He said he was afraid that having a student loan could somehow affect his ability to travel overseas after graduation or create an obligation that could “hang over” him.
I had to explain to him that such fears, in the absence of evidence, should not discourage him from accessing a legitimate educational support programme.
A student loan is a financial obligation, not a criminal record. Beneficiaries, however, must understand the terms and conditions attached to the facility and comply with the applicable repayment requirements after graduation and employment.
The fund is Nigerian money. It is not APC money, President Tinubu’s personal money, nor does it belong to the North, South, Hausa, Igbo or Yoruba.
It is a national student-loan programme established to address a national challenge.
There are undoubtedly students across the South-East who may be harbouring similar misconceptions or who simply lack sufficient information about the scheme.
This is where our leaders and institutions have a responsibility to act.
Politics must not destroy opportunity
The politics and apparent hypocrisy surrounding the avoidance or discouragement of our students from accessing NELFUND cannot benefit the region.
The South-East must wake up and confront the reality.
We must stop viewing every Federal Government policy through the prism of partisan politics. If a policy is beneficial to our people, we should embrace it. If it has shortcomings, we should demand improvements. Where there are legitimate concerns, we should raise them constructively.
But rejecting an opportunity simply because it was introduced by a government or political party we do not support is not leadership. It is self-inflicted deprivation.
NELFUND should not be regarded as an APC programme or a Bola Tinubu programme. It is a national policy designed to address a national problem.
The South-East cannot, on the one hand, complain about marginalisation and lack of opportunities while, on the other hand, failing to take advantage of opportunities that are already available to its students.
There is nothing wrong with scrutinising government policies. There is, however, everything wrong with allowing political resentment, misinformation or indifference to prevent our children from accessing legitimate opportunities.
NELFUND also has the potential to reach a much larger number of students than conventional scholarship programmes, which often have limited slots and stringent eligibility requirements.
Student-loan systems are not peculiar to Nigeria. In many developed countries, students obtain educational loans to finance their studies and repay them after graduation when they secure employment. What should matter is whether the terms are fair, transparent and sustainable.
Time for stakeholders to act
South-East governors, members of the National Assembly, commissioners, local government leaders, university administrators, lecturers, religious leaders, traditional rulers, media organisations, student unions, parents and community organisations must intensify sensitisation on NELFUND.
Our universities and other eligible institutions should not simply wait for students to stumble upon information about the programme. They should actively educate students about the application process, eligibility requirements, benefits and repayment obligations.
Political leaders must put politics aside when the welfare and future of our children are involved.
Parents should ask questions. Students should seek information. The media should report the opportunities while interrogating the challenges. Religious and community leaders should also deploy their enormous platforms to educate young Nigerians.
The objective should not be to promote President Tinubu or any political party. The objective should be to ensure that no qualified South-East student misses an educational opportunity because of ignorance, misinformation or unnecessary political sentiment.
The South-East has historically distinguished itself through education, enterprise, intellectual capacity and an extraordinary determination to succeed.
It would, therefore, be a painful contradiction for a region celebrated for its commitment to education to rank last in accessing a national student-loan programme designed to make education more accessible.
We cannot continue to complain that our people are being excluded while simultaneously failing to take advantage of opportunities available to them.
Education is too important to become a casualty of politics.
If NELFUND has weaknesses, let us expose them and demand reforms. If there are legitimate concerns about repayment, let us seek clarification and better safeguards. If students are inadequately informed, let us educate them.
But let us not reject the opportunity because of who introduced it.
The question should no longer be: Who introduced NELFUND?
The question should be: How can our children benefit from it?
The fund belongs to Nigeria. The opportunity belongs to Nigerian students. The future belongs to our children.
Let us, therefore, put aside hypocrisy, misinformation, partisan sentiments and nonchalance.
Let the South-East wake up. Let our leaders speak. Let our institutions sensitise. Let our parents encourage. Let our students apply.
Because when politics ends, it is our children who will have to live with the consequences of the opportunities we either embraced or rejected today.
NELFUND is not about APC. It is not about PDP. It is not about North or South. It is about Nigerian students, Nigerian education and the future of Nigeria.
Our children must not be allowed to lose tomorrow because their parents and leaders failed to recognise the opportunity available to them today.
Ezea, Director, Media to Senator Ikeje Asogwa, writes from Independence Layout, Enugu State.
EDITOR
Sam Udekwe is a journalist working in the News and Current Affairs department, Enugu State Broadcasting Service (ESBS) Enugu. He is well trained in all genres of journalistic venture.
Mr Sam read Mass Communication, graduating all with Distinction in National Diploma, Higher National Diploma and Postgraduate Diploma at IMT, Enugu and Madonna University, Okija, Anambra state, as well as M.Sc Mass Communication at National Open University of Nigeria.
He is the immediate past NUJ Chairman, Enugu state.
samowailo@gmail.com
