The Nigeria Education Loan Fund, NELFUND, has said that students in federal tertiary institutions are the first to access the Student Loan Scheme application portal.
The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Fund, Akintinde Sawyerr, who disclosed this on Monday during a pre-application sensitization press conference in Abuja, however said only students whose institutions have uploaded their data on its dashboard would be eligible to apply for the loan.
“The first phase of the application for the portal of students loan program would be officially opened on the 24th of May, 2024 for students in federal institutions like Universities, Polytechnic, Colleges of Education and technical colleges, whose institutions have completed and uploaded their students data.
“This students loan scheme is available to students who are in government institutions at the tertiary level.
“We are going to start with federal institutions because it is a program that we have to roll out in phases. It will eventually be rolled out to state-owned institutions,” he said.
On the documents that would be required, Sawyer said applicants will require the following documents to complete their applications: “Joint Admission and Matriculation Board letter, National Identification Number, Bank Verification Number.”
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Applicants are also to complete the application, including personal details, academic information and details of financial need and submit application after reviewing it.
On the repayments method, he said the borrowers, regardless of where they get a job whether they are working with the government or with somebody else, must pay back the loans after two years.
“The student loan scheme will pay 100 per cent of the fee for the loanees at the institution. There is also the track of providing stipends to the loanees.
“We only pay a session at a time because people drop out of institutions, they change institutions, change their mind about the course they want to do,” he added.
About bad loans, he said the Fund was trying to make sure that it has absolute information about the applicants as possible and be sure that they are Nigerian citizens and are of good repute.
“We also have various ways of working with security agencies to ensure that the people who are applying to these loans are not people who may want to defraud,” he added.
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