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The Federal Government has further extended the student loan scheme to accomodations more state tertiary institutions in the country.
The Managing Director of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, Dr Akintunde Sawyerr, who made this disclosure said, privilege was given to state institutions to apply for the loan facility when the second phase of the scheme commences on June 25.
According to Data from the regulatory agencies’ websites, no fewer than 336 state tertiary institutions students in the country comprising universities, colleges of education and technical colleges will benefit from the scheme.
Accounding to datat obtained from the National Universities Commission website indicate that there are 63 state universities.
The National Board for Technical Education on its website listed 54 state polytechnics, 57 state monothenics and 111 state technical colleges.
The National Commission for Colleges of Education’s website shows that there are 51 state colleges of education in the country.
Also, no fewer than 60,000 federal instiutions students have registered on the loan application portal so far.
NELFUND opened its application portal in the first phase of the registration exercise which started on May 24.
About 1.2m students in 226 federal universities, polytechnics, colleges of education, and technical colleges were expected to benefit from the first phase.
Giving the latest update on the loan scheme at a press conference, Sawyerr revealed that the Fund would start receiving applications from state universities on June 25.
He requested all state institutions to submit their students’ data immediately in order to facilitate a smooth and seamless application process.
The NELFUND boss said, “Beyond financial assistance, NELFUND recognises the profound importance of equipping our youth with practical, market-relevant skills.
“Six months from today, we will launch a comprehensive skills acquisition programme, providing training in various vocational and technical fields to foster entrepreneurship and innovation among our young people"
Sawyerr said over 60,000 applications had been received by the agency since registration for the first phase began last Friday.
He called on students in federal tertiary institutions to visit the website, www.nelf.gov.ng and apply.
