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From left: NELFUND’s Executive Director (Operations), Mr. Mustapha Iyal, the Managing Director/CEO, Mr. Akintunde Sawyerr, Secretary, Mrs. Olufunmilayo Alagbada and Executive Director (Finance and Administration), Dr. Femi Akinfala after the press conference
By Anthony Maliki, Abuja
The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) is to consider loan facilities for those interested in acquiring skills and undertaking vocational trainings.
Modalities for the programme would be worked out and fine-tuned between August and September while implementation is expected to take place by end of the year.
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of NELFUND, Mr. Akintunde Sawyerr made the disclosure in Abuja on Wednesday during a press conference to provide update on the activities of the Fund.
He said the idea of considering skills acquisition and vocational training is for millions of Nigerians who are either not academic or don’t wish to pursue the academic line but have talents either with their hands or their creative minds.
According to him, the programme is going to be funded by NELFUND on behalf of the beneficiaries and seek to get them into the workforce and be able to get some productivity for the nation and the return on investment that the country is making in them in order to pay more taxes to the country.
Mr. Sawyerr noted that beneficiaries are expected to be gainfully employed or self-employed so that NELFUND can continue the circle of supporting those who are coming through.
The Managing Director noted that following Mr President’s directive, NELFUND has been able to disburse 100% of institutional fees amounting to N1,172,388,340.00 for 20,000 students in esteemed institutions across the country.
He pointed out that these institutions were carefully selected based on their academic calendar while disbursements to other institutions will be made at the beginning of their sessions to ensure a transparent and equitable distribution of resources.
On applications across the country, he said there were more uptakes from the northern part of the country in terms of the numbers who have applied.
However, Mr. Sawyerr explained, since last week, the numbers are going up, noting that when he first talked about the numbers, the northern part of the country was showing a figure of about 80 per cent but believed the figure is closer to 70/30 ration.
The CEO said the southern part of the country is starting to mobilize and engage and application for the loans did to NELFUND’s enlightenment and drive which had garnered enthusiasm.
He explained that NELFUND’s law actually requires to do everything that can ensure that loan is equitable across the entire country and try to drive enthusiasm where there is low intake.
On insinuation of deductions from the loans, the Managing Direction explained NELFUND don’t charge application or administrative fee or charge interest as the loans are issued 100 per cent to beneficiaries.
“I should also make it clear that with our conversation with the banks that funds are going into, there also no deductions,” he noted.
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