The Managing Director of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), Akintunde Sawyerr, has revealed that the Fund has disbursed payments to 265 tertiary institutions for 1.5 million applications.
Sawyerr made the disclosure on Tuesday, the 10th of February, 2026, during an interview on Arise Television.
He acknowledged the challenges involved in verifying the applications, noting that discussions are ongoing with institutions to allow students who applied late to still sit their exams.
“I think if there’s anything to be stressed or worried about, it is the welfare of the youth in Nigeria. So I welcome the stress and the worry.
“The way things are is that we started the scheme to provide students with interest free loans to ensure that the situation that we’ve had in this country for so long where so many cannot commence tertiary education and so many who have struggled against all odds to get themselves into a tertiary institution have had to drop out because of funds.
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“Essentially, what we are here to do is to enable students who have the capacity, the desire to remain in the institution until they graduate and to be able to access education. These systems require proper processes when you’re disbursing government funds.
“It is important that we use the proper processes that we have approved and designed and approved to ensure that we don’t have any sort of misappropriation of these funds.
“Today, the Fund has paid 265 tertiary institutions for 1.5 million applications,” Sawyerr stated.