The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) on Thursday announced that upkeep loan disbursements will now be strictly tied to the academic calendar of each institution.
NELFUND disclosed this in a statement signed by its Director of Corporate Communications, Oseyemi Oluwatuyi.
“In line with this directive, students shall only be entitled to upkeep loans for their current academic session. At the conclusion of an institution’s academic year, upkeep payments for that session will automatically cease.
“Consequently, students moving into a new academic year will no longer receive upkeep disbursements for the previous session,” Oluwatuyi said.
The Fund further advised that interested applicants must submit their loan applications at the start of every academic session to qualify for both institutional charges and upkeep allowances for that period.
“To ensure accuracy and transparency, the NELFUND loan portal is being automated to reflect this adjustment. Henceforth, the portal will display only the upkeep loans collected by each student within the relevant session.
“Institutions are therefore strongly advised to upload their academic calendars and sessional information promptly to ensure their students access the full upkeep benefits due to them in an academic year,” he added.
Apart from institutional loans disbursed directly to schools, beneficiaries of the student loan scheme also receive monthly upkeep payments of N20,000, amounting to N240,000 annually.
With the new directive, students will only enjoy the N20,000 monthly allowance during active academic sessions, while payments will be suspended during holidays.
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