No fewer than 137 institutions across the country have now collaborated with the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, data from the NELFUND website on Monday revealed.

The data did not, however, disclose the names of the collaborating institutions nor did it specify whether the institutions are Federal Government or state-controlled.

It simply stated, “137 collaborating with esteemed institutions” in its data insight section.

But NELFUND’s Head of Media, Nasir Ayitogo, told The PUNCH in an interview that “The 137 institutions are the federal institutions.”

NELFUND had in a press statement released last Thursday said it would publish the full list of institutions that had submitted their complete student data, as requested by the agency, for upload onto the NELFUND Student Verification System portal.

This list of both federal and state-owned institutions will be published to ensure transparency and to encourage due access and participation in the scheme, the Fund said in a statement by Ayitogo.

President Bola Tinubu, on April 3, signed the Student Loans (Access to Higher Education) Act (Repeal and Re-Enactment) Bill, 2024, into law.

The assent was sequel to the separate considerations by both the Senate and the House of Representatives of the report of the Committee on Tertiary Institutions and the Tertiary Education Trust Fund.

The Act empowers the Nigeria Education Loan Fund to provide loans to qualified Nigerian students for tuition, fees, charges and upkeep during their studies in approved public tertiary institutions and vocational and skills acquisition establishments in the country.

Recall that NELFUND’s Managing Director, Akintunde Sawyerr, once revealed that students’ accessibility to student loans would be based on the institution’s responses.

He had also noted that over 90 per cent of federal institutions had also collaborated with the Fund.