In recent weeks, Nigeria’s student loan scheme, the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), has come under intense criticism on social media, with some commentators describing it as a failure and even calling for its scrapping. But for education advocate Dr Dipo Awojide, such characterisations miss the point and the scale of what the scheme represents.
According to Dr Awojide, dismissing NELFUND as unsuccessful “overlooks both its purpose and its potential,” especially for a programme that is barely in its formative stages. He argues that calls for the scheme to be scrapped are not only premature but “one of the comical jokes of the decade,” given the measurable impact already recorded.
As of today, NELFUND has received 1,573,363 applications from Nigerian students across the country. Of this number, 983,706 students from the North, West, East and South have already benefited from the scheme. Total payments made so far stand at approximately ₦200 billion, a figure that places NELFUND among the largest education financing interventions ever implemented in Nigeria.
Beyond the numbers, Dr Awojide insists that transparency remains central to NELFUND’s operations.
He notes that recipient institutions including universities and polytechnics formally acknowledge disbursements made to their students. These acknowledgements, he says, are not hidden documents but have been made publicly available through traditional and social media platforms. “There is evidence in the open,” he maintains, urging critics to engage with verified information before drawing conclusions.
Addressing complaints about delayed or inconsistent payments, Dr Awojide acknowledges the frustration experienced by some students but explains that such delays are often linked to verification challenges, data mismatches and institutional bottlenecks. In many cases, he argues, delays arise when students submit inaccurate or incomplete information a problem that no credible financial system can overlook.
“NELFUND cannot afford to compromise on verification,” he stresses, pointing to the importance of strict Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures. Approving and disbursing funds without proper verification, he warns, would expose the scheme to fraud and undermine its long-term sustainability.
Contrary to claims that students are left without support, Dr Awojide says NELFUND operates a dedicated department responsible for handling queries and complaints from both students and institutions. He recalls recently escalating concerns raised by students in Ekiti State, noting that the issue is already being addressed. Students, he advises, are encouraged to raise tickets through nelf.gov.ng or channel concerns via their institutions rather than relying on social media speculation.
He also calls for stronger collaboration among universities, bursaries and students, arguing that effective integration of all stakeholders is essential for smooth operations. In his view, operational challenges should be resolved through engagement, not politicised through coordinated social media attacks.
While acknowledging that process improvements are still ongoing, Dr Awojide says NELFUND is actively working to standardise procedures and improve data integration. However, he cautions that applications with incomplete information cannot and should not be approved. “That would be fraud,” he says plainly.
For Dr Awojide, the bigger picture remains clear: NELFUND is expanding access to education and easing financial barriers for hundreds of thousands of Nigerian students. “It is not a failed scheme,” he insists. “It is one of the best schemes ever introduced in Nigeria.”
As public debate continues, his position reveals a broader question confronting Nigeria’s education sector as to whether early operational challenges should define a programme, or whether progress should be measured by impact, scale and the willingness to improve.
Edutimes Africa’s Perspective
From Edutimes Africa’s assessment, while the concerns raised by students deserve serious attention, they do not in themselves justify branding NELFUND a failed or unsuccessful scheme. Our monitoring of the programme since inception shows that NELFUND is operating at an unprecedented scale within Nigeria’s education financing landscape, reaching hundreds of thousands of students who previously had no structured access to credit-based educational support.
It is also important to situate current operational challenges within the reality of implementing Nigeria’s first nationwide student loan system. Payment delays, verification backlogs and coordination gaps though frustrating are not uncommon in large public financing schemes at early stages, particularly those that prioritise strict compliance, fraud prevention and institutional verification. In this context, NELFUND’s emphasis on data validation and KYC compliance reflects a cautious approach aimed at long-term sustainability rather than administrative indifference.
Edutimes Africa further notes that documented disbursements, institutional acknowledgements and publicly available figures contradict claims that the scheme operates without transparency or accountability. Of course, like any mega project in its formative years, there will always be room for improvement but available evidence suggests an evolving system responding to scale, rather than a collapsing one.
Ultimately, the debate around NELFUND highlights a broader policy challenge: how to strengthen implementation without undermining reform. Scrapping a programme of this magnitude, at a time when nearly one million students have already benefited, risks discarding progress rather than refining it.
EduTimes Africa, a product of Education Times Africa, is a magazine publication that aims to lend its support to close the yawning gap in Africa's educational development.