Following the commencement of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) portal for undergraduate students in public institutions on May 24, 2024, applicants continue to encounter various obstacles, such as issues with “invalid institutional fees” and “student data not found.” These challenges suggest that some institutions in the country lack current and accurate student information.
The majority of these institutions rely on outdated methods for admissions and student data management, potentially hindering numerous students from accessing the benefits of the student loan. This situation is indeed concerning.
Findings by EdubaseNG show that the frustration expressed by the majority of the students emanated from their institutions, which include:
“Federal polytechnic Nasarawa ICT refuse to update their system to enable student register and apply for the loan.”
Another student said:
“I cannot proceed to the next step of verifying my matriculation number. It is showing me student records not found, that I should contact my education institution for an update.”
Similarly, postgraduate candidates or applicants of scholarship face similar problems when applying for a transcript from their former institutions. Most of them handle academic transcripts manually, which has culminated in many students losing life-changing opportunities.
Even some institutions that have forwarded their student data made unpardonable mistakes of sending wrong students’ data to the loan agency.
For instance, Mr Alabi Ademola, a parent of an undergraduate student at the Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA), expressed dismay at how the institution erroneously uploaded wrong matriculation number for his son.
His words:
“My son has been trying to input his information into the portal, but his university is making things difficult because his matriculation number couldn’t be accessed by the loans’ board. The fault is from his university.”
This is not only disgraceful, but calls to question the integrity of workers manning the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Unit of the institution.
In a digital age, most of our university systems, even those that claim to be technology-based institutions, are still more than 20 years behind in technology.
Recall a week after the student loan portal was launched, the pioneer Managing Director of NELFUND, Akintunde Sawyerr, said that the agency received more than 60,000 successful registrations from students in 119 institutions across the country, only 30,000 people were able to successfully apply, most of challenges faced by others were institutional-based.
He had earlier disclosed that only students whose institutions have completed and uploaded their students’ data on its database would be eligible to apply.
But it seems the analogue nature of these institutions and backdoor admission process may deprive thousands of undergraduate students.
We are still talking about federal institutions, more rot in Nigeria’s institutions would be exposed by the time the state-owned institutions are onboarded on June 25, 2024, which has now been postponed to July because the most of state-owned institutions failed to upload data of their students on NELFUND SVS Portal.
To buttress backdoor process or the lackadaisical attitude on the part of some higher institutions, some students who are warming up to proceed to 200 level disclosed that they are yet to get matriculation number:
“I haven’t gotten my matriculation number yet, and I couldn’t use my JAMB registration number to verify my student record.”
How such institutions compute records of their students after semester exams remain a puzzle.
Some of the institutions give excuses that they have not been formally communicated, it is a lazy excuse!
EdubaseNG found that in the first week of NELFUND launch, its CEO Sawyerr wrote and visited major stakeholders in the education sector.
For instance, he visited the Minister of Education and wrote to the Committee of Vice Chancellors through the NUC, “and the NUC has confirmed that a communication was sent to all the universities to submit their data and fees schedule to the Students Verification System (SVS),” the loan agency’s spokesman Nasir Ayitogo said.
While we blame these institutions for some of their inadequacies, the Federal government, which arbitrarily establishes higher institutions for a cheap political score without adequately funding them, have also contributed hugely to the problem. The education sector as we speak is poorly funded.
Now that the NELFUND Student Verification System has exposed the archaic student data-keeping and backdoor admission process in our institutions, the government should stop paying lip service for funding higher institutions. How can an institution that doesn’t have a database teach its student on the process of keeping data?
The tertiary institutions should see the latest student database issue as a wake-up call to sit up and rejig ICT Unit. ICT Unit should be manned by professionals who are trained with latest trends in data keeping and software.
The institutions should make it a priority of transiting from paper to digital database systems for students’ data to be accessible to government agencies that grant loans and other organizations that may want to assist in their educational pursuits.
We hope that officials of the ICT Unit of these institutions will not turn themselves to god when they are contacted by student to resolve data-related issues.
They should cooperate with NELFUND management to make access to higher education seamless, which is one of the objectives of the Students Loans (Access to Higher Education) (Repeal and Re-Enactment) Act, 2024.
Higher institutions should not use their inefficiency to obstruct the smooth running of the programme. They should not deter students from accessing opportunities.
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