More Schools Qualify for Tinubu Student Loan scheme

The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has announced that 12 additional state-owned tertiary institutions have uploaded their students’ data on its student verification system (SVS), bringing the total number of participating institutions to 48.

The newly onboarded institutions include;

• Abia State Polytechnic
• Benue State University, Makurdi
• College of Education, Waka-Biu
• University of Medical and Applied Sciences Enugu state
• Aliko Dangote University of science and Technology Wudil, Kano state
• Kwara Polytechnic
• Lagos State University of Science and Technology
• Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida Uniersity Lapai, Niger state
• Olabisi Onabanjo University
• Abraham Adesanya Polytechnic
• Taraba State Polytechnic
• Yobe State University

This development comes after President Bola Tinubu enacted an initial version of the student loan policy in June 2023 to grant interest-free loans to students.

The scheme was initially scheduled to commence in October 2023 but was repeatedly deferred until a re-enactment in April 2024.

The NELFUND portal went live on May 24, and the agency approved the disbursement of the student loans to all successful applicants in its first rollout last month.

The student loan scheme is designed to provide financial assistance to students in tertiary institutions, and the addition of these 12 institutions means that more students will now have access to the scheme.

NELFUND has urged all institutions yet to submit their students’ data to the Student Verification Portal to do so to enable their students to benefit from the scheme.

The agency has also advised states whose data have been captured and successfully uploaded to urgently sensitise their students to apply for the loan.