The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has successfully resolved a significant backlog of unpaid student stipends, disbursing a total of N927 million in upkeep allowances to 11,685 students. The payments cover arrears from the 2024/2025 academic session.
Reconciliation Uncovers Payment Gaps
According to the Fund's Managing Director, Akintunde Sawyerr, the unpaid allowances were identified during a detailed reconciliation exercise focused on student upkeep payments. Sawyerr addressed the media at a press conference held in Abuja, outlining the causes behind the initial payment failures.
He attributed the challenges to a combination of technical and operational issues that occurred during the original processing window. These problems included temporary network failures, transactions that did not go through successfully, and instances where provided bank account details could not be validated at the crucial moment of payment.
A One-Time Push for Resolution
In response to these issues, NELFUND management initiated a special, one-time process to clear all outstanding cases. Sawyerr stated this action was taken in direct alignment with the President's emphasis on accountability and efficiency within public service institutions.
The resolution framework involved several key steps:
- Direct communication with each affected student to notify them of the issue.
- A specified grace period allowing students to update or provide alternative, correct bank account information.
- A multi-layer validation procedure involving teams from IT, client support, audit, and finance departments.
- Immediate payment processing once a student's details were fully verified and validated.
"Our objective is straightforward," Sawyerr emphasized. "Every eligible student must receive what is due to them, accurately, transparently, and without delay."
Progress for the New Academic Session
Providing an update on current operations, the Executive Director of Operations, Mustapha Iyal, shared positive figures for the 2025/2026 academic cycle. He revealed that 325 tertiary institutions across Nigeria have now been onboarded onto the NELFUND platform.
From these institutions, a pool of approximately 3.7 million students has been identified as eligible to apply for the loan scheme. Iyal further disclosed that out of the applications received for the current session, 283,275 have been successfully verified and approved.
However, the Fund also maintained its vetting standards, rejecting 13,026 applications that did not meet the required criteria for funding. This highlights the ongoing checks and balances within the system to ensure proper utilization of funds.
