The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, has advised parents to find out whether their children have applied for and received financial support from the Nigerian Education Loan Fund.
Oyedele gave the advice in Abuja on Wednesday while responding to a journalist who claimed that his three children in tertiary institutions had neither benefited from the scheme nor knew anyone who had received the support.
The minister suggested that the students might have obtained the funds without informing their father, urging him to ask them to provide evidence of their applications.
“It is possible they’ve collected the money, and they are collecting from you,” Oyedele said, while encouraging the parent to establish whether his children had applied.
He further advised parents whose children had not benefited from the scheme to assist them with the application process, saying NELFUND was designed to provide financial relief to students facing the burden of higher education costs.
According to Oyedele, beneficiaries receive more than tuition assistance, as the programme also provides a monthly stipend, which he said was particularly important amid the current economic situation.
He said eligible students could access funding of up to N1.5m and urged parents seeking assistance with the application to visit the Ministry of Finance if they encountered difficulties using the online platform.
Oyedele said the government had received positive feedback from beneficiaries, noting that some students had shared their experiences after receiving payment alerts.
He also disclosed that participation in the programme was higher in northern Nigeria than in the southern part of the country, attributing the difference partly to greater acceptance of the initiative in the North.
The minister recalled his previous efforts to support financially disadvantaged students through his personal foundation, saying some of the beneficiaries later confirmed that they had received NELFUND support after he directed them to apply.
Oyedele urged parents and students who are yet to access the programme to take advantage of the available funding rather than assume that the scheme was inaccessible.
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