The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has clarified its decision to align students’ upkeep loan disbursement with each institution’s academic calendar.
In a statement signed by Mrs. Oseyemi Oluwatuyi, Director of Strategic Communications, NELFUND explained that this adjustment is intended to promote fairness, transparency, and alignment with schools’ schedules.
Some students’ applications may have been rejected because their schools had not yet uploaded academic calendars onto the NELFUND portal.
“At the initial stage of application – rejection may result from incomplete or unclear institutional verification stages.
“At the institutional verification stage – rejection may result from an institution having verified or disbursed upkeep for the same student in a prior academic session,” they stated.
Naijaonpoint reported that NELFUND revised its policy on student upkeep loans, requiring disbursements to follow each institution’s academic session. Students are now entitled to upkeep loans only for their current session and must reapply at the start of each academic year.
The updated NELFUND portal will display only loans collected within the relevant session, ensuring transparency and preventing duplicate payments.
NELFUND encouraged affected students to engage their institutions to ensure that their academic session calendars are uploaded.
“Where an institution provides proof of an uploaded academic calendar, students are already being processed for disbursement. For harmony, rejection notices have been sent to students whose institutions are yet to upload their academic calendars,” the agency explained.
The Fund called on institutions that have not yet complied with the new loan scheme to provide their academic calendars through official channels.
Since the launch of the portal on May 24, 2024, the student loan scheme has seen significant uptake across the country. A total of 754,862 students have registered for the programme, and 750,892 applications were successfully submitted, reflecting a 99% application success rate among registrants.
To date, 449,039 students have benefitted from the loan, showing strong progress in the scheme’s implementation. Compared to the previous day, the number of new successful registrants surged by 128%, with 2,367 new registrations and 3,035 successful applications recorded, highlighting growing engagement with the portal.
As of August 6, 2025, the total disbursement of the student loan programme reached N86.34 billion. Of this amount, N47.62 billion has been paid to 218 institutions to cover institutional fees, while N38.71 billion has been released directly to students as upkeep allowances, supporting their day-to-day academic and living expenses.