NELFund Disowns Fake Student Loan Site

The Nigerian Education Loan Fund has warned against what it described as a “fraudulent advertisement” about a ‘Federal Study Loan.’

This followed adverts on some news sites where the website, www.fedstudyloan-gov.ng is being advertised as the application portal for the highly anticipated student loan scheme of the Federal Government.

“NELFUND wishes to clarify that it has no association with this website and strongly condemns any attempt to deceive students seeking financial aid,” read a disclaimer signed on Friday by its Media and Public Relations Lead, Nasir Ayitogo.

Ayotogo said the Fund’s official channel for student loan applications, which will be open to the public in due course, is www.nelf.gov.ng.

Therefore, he appealed to persons who encounter the fake website to report it to the authorities immediately.

“NELFUND takes the security and well-being of our students very seriously and is committed to providing accurate information and resources for financing their education.

“We urge all students to exercise caution and verify the legitimacy of any website or service claiming to represent our organisation.

“In the meantime, we encourage anyone affected by this scam to report it immediately to the relevant authorities,” the statement read. On April 3, President Bola Tinubu signed the Student Loans (Access to Higher Education) Act (Repeal and Re-Enactment) Bill, 2024, into law.

This followed separate considerations by both the Senate and the House of Representatives of the report of the Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFund.

The newly-signed piece of legislation was an upgrade of the Access to Higher Education Act, 2023 Tinubu signed the into law on June 12, 2023. The law enables indigent students to access interest-free loans for their educational pursuits in any Nigerian tertiary institution.

It also established the Nigerian Education Loan Fund to process all loan requests, grants, disbursements and recoveries.

Although the government initially announced that the scheme would be launched in September, it experienced several delays due to a review of the old law and the expansion of its mandate to cover loans for vocational skills.

The revised version allows for the appointment of a Chairperson of the fund, a Managing Director and two Executive Directors of Finance and Operations each to “assist the Managing Director in performing his duties.”

The appointees “shall hold office for five years,” the Act read.

It also made the Loan Fund a corporate entity with the ability to enter contracts, including loan agreements with applicants, or to initiate enforcement actions to recover loans from beneficiaries; provisions it lacked hitherto.