The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) announced that it will launch a centralized job portal in 2026.
While NELFUND doesn’t guarantee employment for its beneficiaries, this initiative aims to provide them with early access to job opportunities both within Nigeria and internationally.
During a media engagement in Abuja that marked the scheme’s first anniversary, NELFUND’s Managing Director, Mr. Akintunde Sawyerr, explained that the portal will consolidate job listings from public and private sectors, as well as from international employers looking to recruit Nigerians.
“We do not just provide a loan and leave students to fend for themselves. This job portal is our way of supporting their journey towards economic stability,” he said.
Sawyerr said students would only begin repayment after securing employment, and that this would begin after their National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme.
He said: “If you do not have a job, you do not pay. And when you eventually get a job, your repayment starts fresh. Once employed, 10% of the beneficiary’s monthly income is deducted automatically by the employer and remitted to NELFUND, following verification through the NELFUND employment register.
“If an employee is laid off or resigns, the deductions stop. And in the event of death, the loan is written off. The family is not harassed,” Sawyerr added.
On the refund of fees to students who had paid before NELFUND disbursed funds to their institutions, the Managing Director appealed to the institutions to reimburse such students.
According to him, schools have the moral and professional duty to return these funds to students.
He said: “We have received multiple petitions from students who paid under duress, only to find their fees had also been paid by NELFUND. Institutions must refund this money. It is disappointing that some schools have ignored this responsibility.”
He noted that investigative bodies like the ICPC and EFCC have stepped in to question certain institutions over delays or refusals to refund.
“If an institution cannot refund directly to the student, they can pay the money back to us, and we will ensure it gets to the rightful student,” Sawyerr stated.
Discussing the agency’s projections for the coming years, NELFUND’s Executive Director of Operations, Mr. Mustapha Iyal, said the Fund is currently managing over 3.2 million student records within its system.
Iyal, however, said the Fund is projecting one million new applications by the end of 2025.
While noting that the figure was not a mandatory target, he said the Fund aimed to ensure that no student dropped out of school due to financial hardship.
He said: “Basically, our projection right now is that we have about 3.2 million students in our system. What we are looking at this year, from now to the end of the year, we are looking at about one million applications.
“We are not pushing. We are not saying that it is compulsory. But we are looking at how we can support one million applications to make sure that no one is dropping out of school.”
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