The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has addressed concerns about the absence of South-East students from the federal government’s student loan programme.
On Friday, NELFUND revealed that it had allocated nearly ₦2.95 billion to 27,667 students across 19 universities.
However, none of the federal universities in the South-East were included in this distribution.
This omission has led to criticism from members of the Igbo community on social media.
NELFUND responded by clarifying that the lack of South-East institutions on the list was due to their failure to meet the necessary requirements for loan access.
The organization said that geographic location does not influence the loan distribution process.
NELFUND stated that it had issued a verification request to all eligible institutions, and only those that responded received payments.
They urged South-East institutions to complete their verification to enable their students to benefit from the programme.
NELFUND said: “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.