The agitations caused by the absence of South-East students from the Federal Government’s student loan programme has got addressed by the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND).
NELFUND, on Friday, revealed that it had allocated nearly ₦2.95 billion to 27,667 students across 19 universities, adding that none of the federal universities in the South-East was included in this distribution.
This omission led to criticism from members of the Igbo community on social media.
Responding to the development, NELFUND clarified that the lack of South-East institutions in the list was due failure on their part to meet the necessary requirements for loan access.
The organisation said that geographic location did not influence the loan distribution process, pointing out that it had issued a verification request to all eligible institutions, and only those that responded received payments.
NELFUND urged South-East institutions to complete their verification to enable their students benefit from the programme.
Said the Fund: “It’s important to clarify that geopolitical zones are not a factor in the disbursement process. NELFUND sent a verification list to every institution eligible for disbursement.
“Payments are being made to institutions that have responded to this verification. Unfortunately, we have not yet received any response from the institutions in the South-East. We urge these institutions to complete the verification process so that their students can benefit from the scheme”.
Institutions that have received funding include the University of Maiduguri, University of Ibadan, Obafemi Awolowo University, Federal Polytechnic Ilaro, and Federal College of Education Technical Gusau.
