Parents will soon be able to verify online whether the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has paid their children’s tuition fees, as part of a new measure aimed at stopping students from collecting school-fee money from their families after receiving government support.
NELFUND Managing Director and Chief Executive, Akintunde Sawyerr, disclosed this on Wednesday in Abuja, saying the proposed parents’ portal would allow users to enter a child’s matriculation number and establish whether the relevant fees had been settled.
Portal users would only see the payment status – whether fees had been paid or remained outstanding – while the amount involved and other sensitive financial information would remain private.
Sawyerr said the initiative followed concerns that some students whose tuition had already been covered by NELFUND continued to request money from their parents without disclosing their funding status.
“This development is based on us recognising that there are still many students out there who are double dipping; they’re taking from NELFUND and still stressing their parents. So we’re going to put an end to that,” he said.
The move also addresses concerns raised in August by Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, who suggested that some students could be accessing NELFUND support without their parents’ knowledge.
Oyedele made the remark after a participant at a media briefing said his three children had not benefited from the scheme and that he knew no students who had received the funding.
According to Sawyerr, the proposed portal would bridge that information gap while avoiding the disclosure of beneficiaries’ private financial details.
NELFUND introduces tokenised fee payment
Alongside the parents’ portal, NELFUND is piloting a tokenised payment system designed to prevent students from paying tuition twice and reduce the complications associated with refunds.
Under the arrangement, approved institutional fees would be credited to a restricted digital wallet or token linked specifically to the beneficiary’s institution.
Students would use their phones to authorise payment directly to the designated school rather than receiving the money in their personal bank accounts.
Sawyerr said the system was developed partly because some students had independently paid their fees after NELFUND had already settled their bills, having not received timely confirmation of the earlier payment.
“We’re placing the power for payment in the hands of the students. The power for payment to the institution is going to now be walletised so that they can click on their phone and the institution can be paid,” he said.
He stressed that students would not have access to the funds as cash or be able to transfer them to another account.
“They never see the cash. It’s a walletised, or some people might call it a tokenised system. We’re not giving the students money, but we’re giving them power,” he added.
NELFUND Executive Director, Operations, Mustapha Iyal, said the token was tied to a specific institution and could not be diverted to another school or personal account.
He disclosed that the pilot had commenced, with close to 400,000 applications in the system at the time of the briefing.
Once a student authorises a transaction, the institution receives the payment directly, after which the beneficiary can obtain a receipt from the school’s bursary or finance department.
The tokenised system is intended specifically for institutional charges, while upkeep payments remain subject to the applicable disbursement arrangements.
NELFUND plans 2.0 upgrade
Sawyerr also announced plans for two-day regional workshops across Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones as the Fund prepares to deploy its upgraded Student Loan Application System, NELFUND 2.0.
The workshops will involve heads of institutions, bursars, information technology administrators, students and community representatives, with emphasis on application processing, verification, technical readiness and public awareness.
Sawyerr said the upgrade had become necessary as demand for the student loan scheme continued to increase.
He disclosed that NELFUND had more than one million beneficiaries and projected that applications could eventually reach two million, stressing that the figure referred to applications rather than available funding.
NELFUND is expected to use the upgraded system and institutional training to improve verification, speed up processing and strengthen communication with applicants and participating institutions.
Iyal also advised prospective beneficiaries to apply early rather than waiting until examinations or school-fee deadlines, when delays could create avoidable payment problems.
