A technical fault on the Nigerian Education Loan Fund portal has blocked the disbursement of monthly upkeep allowances to beneficiaries for nearly two months, leaving thousands of university, polytechnic, and college of education students without funds to cover basic living expenses, an agency source and student union officials have confirmed.
What Happened
A source within NELFUND, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to address the matter publicly, confirmed to correspondents that a system-related problem had disrupted payment processing and that efforts were underway to reconcile the backlog.
The National Association of Nigerian Students received complaints from across tertiary institutions nationwide. NANS President Babatunde Akinteye said the association had confirmed that disbursements had been on hold for approximately two months with no public explanation from the agency.
Akinteye called on NELFUND Managing Director Akintunde Sawyerr, Minister of Education Dr Tunji Alausa, and the Minister of Finance Wale Edun to intervene and release all outstanding allowances without further delay. He demanded a clear explanation for the disruption and a specific timeline for resolution, warning that NANS could consider peaceful action if the situation persisted.
NELFUND did not respond to requests for an official comment on the extent of the fault or when normal payments would resume.
Why It Matters
NELFUND is one of the flagship programmes of President Bola Tinubu’s administration, established under the Student Loans (Access to Higher Education) Act and amended in 2024 to strengthen implementation. Since disbursements began, the fund has approved loans and allowances for more than 1.16 million students, disbursing over N206 billion to date.
The scheme is specifically designed to reach students from low-income households who cannot independently cover tuition and living costs. For many beneficiaries, the monthly upkeep allowance is not supplementary income — it is the primary means by which they pay for feeding, accommodation, transportation, and materials. A two-month freeze on those payments has immediate, direct consequences on the daily lives of students who applied to the scheme precisely because they had no financial cushion.
The disruption is not the first of its kind. NELFUND has previously faced challenges with verification delays, application processing backlogs, and payment timeline inconsistencies. The NELFUND Managing Director himself acknowledged in an earlier interview that the system depends heavily on accurate data from institutions and that data gaps remain a persistent challenge.
What This Means for Nigerian Students
The practical reality for affected students is that two months of missed allowances represent a significant financial shortfall that many cannot absorb. Students living away from home, particularly in cities where accommodation costs are high, are the most exposed.
The episode also raises questions about the robustness of NELFUND’s IT infrastructure at a time when the Federal Government is simultaneously announcing plans to digitise teacher education — signalling ambition in one area while a glitch in another exposes the fragility of existing systems.
For NELFUND to retain public confidence as Nigeria’s primary student financing vehicle, the agency needs not just to resolve this technical fault but to communicate clearly, quickly, and publicly about what failed, what is being fixed, and when full disbursements will resume. The credibility of the entire scheme depends on students trusting that the money will arrive consistently.
Read also:
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- NELFUND Disbursement: Isoko Institutions, Delta beneficiaries rises after Ukodhiko’s intervention
- NELFUND disburses over ₦206 Billion to 1.16 Million students, expands access to higher education nationwide
“The primary objective of the NELFUND initiative is to provide relief and support to Nigerian students, particularly in the face of prevailing economic realities. Any delay that deprives students of access to these funds undermines the very purpose for which the initiative was established.” — Babatunde Akinteye, NANS President
The Bottom Line
A two-month payment freeze at NELFUND is a serious operational failure for a scheme designed specifically to serve the most financially vulnerable students in Nigeria’s tertiary institutions. The agency’s silence compounds the damage. Until NELFUND provides a transparent account of the system fault, a clear reconciliation timeline, and a commitment to preventing recurrence, students — and the credibility of the student loan programme itself — are left in the dark.
