The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) ha said it was developing a centralised job portal that would give beneficiaries early access to employment opportunities in Nigeria and abroad.
The Managing Director, NELFUND, Akintunde Sawyerr who made the disclosure at a media engagement series on Thursday in Abuja, explained that the portal would aggregate listings from the public and private sectors, as well as international employers interested in recruiting Nigerians.
He said: “We don’t just give a loan and leave students on their own. This job portal is our way of supporting their journey toward economic stability.”
On non-refund of fees to students who had paid before NELFUND disbursed to their institutions, Sawyerr appealed to such institutions to have a moral and professional duty to return the fees back to students.
“We’ve received multiple petitions from students who paid under duress only to find their fees had also been paid by NELFUND. Institutions must refund this money. It’s disappointing that some schools have ignored this responsibility.”
He noted that investigative bodies like the ICPC and EFCC have stepped in to question certain institutions over delays or refusals to refund saying, “If an institution cannot refund directly to the student, they can pay the money back to us and we will ensure it gets to the rightful student,
Speaking on the agency’s projection in the coming years, the Executive Director, Operations, NELFUND, Mustapha Iyal, said the Fund was currently managing over 3.2 million student records in its system.
Iyal who however disclosed that the Fund was projecting one million new applications by the end of 2025, clarified that the figure was not compulsory, adding that the Fund aimed to ensure no student drops out due to financial hardship.
“Basically, our projection right now, we have about 3.2 million data students in our system.
What we’re looking at this year, from now to the end of the year, we’re looking at about 1 million applications. We’re not pushing. We’re not saying that it’s compulsory.
“But we’re looking at how can we support 1 million applications to make sure that no one is dropping out of school,” Iyal said.
