NELFund Disburses ₦20 Billion in Student Loans: Northern Universities Lead Beneficiaries

NELFund has doled out over of ₦20 billion in loans to support 192,906 students in public tertiary institutions which we see all over the country. Also in this latest report we see a trend of large scale support for the northern universities which came out as the main beneficiaries.

Bayero University in Kano led the pack with 11,683 students to receive a total of ₦1.3 billion, very closely followed by the University of Maiduguri which will see 12,198 students share in a sum of ₦1.27 billion. Also to note is the University of Jos which was given out ₦941 million for 6,988 students and the Federal University Dutsin-Ma which will disburse ₦909 million to 8,978 students.

In fact some institutions did very little better. Gombe State Polytechnic, Bajoga saw only 4 students get a total of ₦122,000 in grants while at the same time Abia State Polytechnic was to give out to only 2 students a total of ₦106,300.

Akintunde Sawyerr reports that NELFund has put out over 100 billion Naira to students all over the country in 2024. This program is to remove financial barriers to education and to improve access to higher education in Nigeria.

The issue at hand is that northern universities are at the fore which in turn brings to light great demand for funding in the area as well as the Government’s role in closing educational gaps across the full extent of the nation. Also under NELFund which is in the middle of its campaign we see that the program will grow in reach which in turn will push for greater educational access and equity throughout the country.