The Managing Director of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), Akintunde Sawyerr, said that the loan agency has sufficient money to take care of two million Nigerian students in public institutions.
He disclosed this while featuring on an interview on Channels TV in Abuja, where he said, “we can give everybody a loan. The funds are available to make for us to cover those sorts of numbers over time.”
The NELFUND boss said the loan is open to those who are already in the institutions, saying, “This is not about those coming in only.”
Forecast for 2024
Speaking on the number of applicants the agency expects to get before the end of the year, Sawyerr disclosed that they are looking forward to getting between 250,000 to 300,000 applicants to the public tertiary institutions.
He however said, “We are going to have less than that for the vocational side because we are just kicking that process off.”
He pointed out that the number of applicants from the non-academic sector (that is the vocational side) might be lower because it’s just kicking off.
He also said the application is open to both prospective and returning students in various institutions across the country.
Mode of repayment
On the mode of recovery, Sawyerr said the loan will be deducted directly from the sources of earnings of applicants once they start working.
He said the agency is aware of certain risks and exposures, which may affect the initiative during the process.
In some cases, loan forgiveness may apply especially when the beneficiary dies and is unable to pay back the loan.
He said, “Because of the potential risk of loss of funds. As you can imagine, if you deploy funds to anything, you can lose that investment. These loans will be insured.”
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