The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) is targeting to have about 1.2 million students on the scheme in 2025.

The NELFUND Managing Director, Akintunde Sawyerr said the students would come from government-owned tertiary institutions.

“By 2025 we aim to have at least 1.2 million students on the loan scheme. That basically means that we would have covered the majority of students in tertiary institutions are publicly owned who may wish to take the loan. Our estimate and our target is about 1.2 million,” Sawyer said on the programme.

In terms of disbursement, the NELFUND MD said that the N20,000 stipend currently given to students might be upwardly reviewed next year.

He said that 94,000 students are beneficiaries of the funds that has been disbursed so far which is around N23 billion, adding that the figure is going up by about N1,500 per day.

Sawyerr disclosed that the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) are currently the main funders of the scheme. He, however, noted that the Scheme has also received some support from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND).

“Primarily, the FIRS is the main funder of NELFUND, and I can tell you we have a great understanding with the FIRS, and it is very clear that they are very supportive. We have had great support from TETFUND who have disbursed certain amount of funds to us,” he said.

The MD maintained that the scheme is currently not lacking funds as it currently has over N130 billion in it coffers and expecting more.

“We have over N130bn in the fund, and we have some other funds we are expecting to flow into the fund and that will amount to 70 or so billion… the point is that we are not short of funds,” Sawyer said.

On the spread of beneficiaries according to location, the NELFUND MD revealed that highest beneficiaries from the loan scheme are from the Northern part of the country.

He, however, noted that with increased sensitization in the Southern part, especially South-East and South-South, more applications have come from the zones.