The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, has called on students across the nation to take full advantage of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) to reduce the financial burden associated with higher education.
The monarch made the appeal while receiving the Executive Director of Finance and Administration of NELFUND, Femi Akinfala, at his palace in Ile-Ife, according to a statement issued on Monday.
Expressing concern over the low level of participation among eligible students in the state, the royal father said many undergraduates were yet to apply for the loan despite the opportunities provided by the scheme.
According to him, more than 60,000 students in Osun State who are registered on the NELFUND portal have not applied for the facility.
“Over 60,000 students in Osun have not applied out of over 125,000 on the portal. This should not be so,” the Ooni said.
He urged students to take advantage of the intervention instead of placing additional financial pressure on their parents, as he commended the federal government for introducing the programme.
The traditional ruler described the initiative as a significant step toward improving access to tertiary education and supporting students from financially challenged backgrounds.
Speaking earlier, Akinfala said Osun State remains one of the leading beneficiaries of the education loan scheme, noting that Governor Ademola Adeleke has strongly supported its implementation.
He disclosed that over 125,000 undergraduate students from the state are currently on the NELFUND portal, while about 57,000 have successfully applied for the loan.
According to him, more than N11 billion has already been disbursed to beneficiaries in the state.
Akinfala explained that the initiative, introduced under the administration of President Bola Tinubu, was created to ensure that no Nigerian student is denied access to higher education because of financial challenges.
He also appealed to the Ooni to support efforts aimed at expanding awareness of the programme across the South-West region.
Also speaking, the Lowa Adimula of Ile-Ife, Adekola Adeyeye, encouraged parents to guide their children toward taking advantage of the scheme and stressed the need for increased media sensitisation to improve participation.
