The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, NELFUND, Mr. Akintunde Sawyerr, has made a clarion call to Nigerians, particularly students of tertiary institutions, to embrace the student loan scheme as the opportunities embedded in it are enormous.
The NELFUND boss made the appeal at a media briefing in Lagos, on Monday, where he revealed that though 94,000 students have benefitted from the scheme, amounting to N23 billion in disbursements, some states are more enthusiastic than the others in embracing the scheme. And he fingered some historical and cultural reasons for the skepticism by the ‘lukewarm’ states.
Sawyerr, a diplomat and professional in logistics, healthcare, and agricultural development, confirmed that though NELFUND receives “applications at the rate of 1500 a day”, hitting 9000 on a particular Monday, three months ago, Nigerians, indeed the southern states, need to show more enthusiasm, and take advantage of the life-changing opportunities the scheme offers.
To bridge the gap between the enthusiastic states and those not too warm towards the scheme, Sawyerr, who revealed that NELFUND will target 1.2 million students in 2025, stated that the organization has perfected plans to embark on aggressive enlightenment campaign across the country to shred all the myths and promote the scheme’s lofty goals and advantages.
BEAUTY OF THE STUDENTS LOAN SCHEME
The student loan scheme, he espoused, is available to all Nigerian students in tertiary institutions and, though a revolving loan, it is tenure-free unlike a typical bank loan.
“There is no obligation on the loanees to repay the loans until after two years after they have completed their NYSC,” Sawyerr said. “Even after that two years, there is no obligation on the repayment of the loan unless the person has a job.
“Two years after NYSC, there is a reporting requirement for us to know what the state of the individual is. If they (the individual loanees) don’t get a job for the next ten years, then, they don’t pay the NELFUND any money.
“Additionally, the obligation to repay is on the employer who is obliged by law to give us a proportion of the fund that they are paying as a salary to the employee. Our guideline stipulates 10 percent.
“EVEN after these two years moratorium, if you don’t have a job, you don’t pay. The scheme is not designed to criminalise the obligor, it is designed to ensure that the employer, who is really benefitting from the intervention of the NELFUND, is the one that is obliged to pay 10 percent.”
DISQUALIFICATION
However, any student who falsifies documents to apply for the loan is automatically disqualified, the NELFUND boss stated categorically. While the organization is committed to fairness to all, he emphasized, it has in-built mechanism to do due diligence and spot discrepancies. Just as it has effective controls to ensure that beneficiaries pay up once they are in gainful employment or running personal businesses. And NELFUND will not lose any sleep over a beneficiary who decides to migrate abroad (japa, as it is called in local parlance) because it is sufficiently equipped by law to get his employers to pay.
FUNDING
Ever wondered how NELFUND gets money to fund its huge mandate? Wonder no more. Sawyerr doesn’t lose sleep over funding because it has over N130 billion in its coffers and more will still flow in. “We are not short of funds,” he said. And this is essentially because, according to the MD/CEO, the law establishing NELFUND stipulates that “this agency will be funded by receiving one percent of the FIRS revenue collections. Which means this agency should receive up to N194 billion.”
Besides, the law allows NELFUND to solicit funds from other sources. “It may be those who want to invest in education in Nigeria-those who want to donate to the fund, either funds across the board or funds for specific types of applicants,” Sawyerr said.
“We also have the power to invest the funds that we have. There are specific opportunities that we have to grow the funds and make it sustainable.”
Among the other sources identified by Sawyerr are: the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, which provides NELFUND with N60 billion from the proceeds of crime; the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFUND, which provides N141 billion (of which they have given N71billion); and an appropriation of N60 billion (of which NELFUND has received N10 billion). And there is a bill currently in the National Assembly which, when passed and it becomes law, would entitle NELFUND to 20 percent of TETFUND proceeds.
Rounding up, Sawyerr implored Nigerian students in tertiary institutions to take advantage of the scheme and enjoy the enormous advantages in it. He assured that NELFUND, under his watch, will always provide equal opportunity and equal access for all.
