Abuja, Nigeria, August 21, 2025 – The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has responded to public concerns following its recent update on upkeep loan disbursement.
The agency explained that the decision to align upkeep payments strictly with academic sessions was taken to ensure fairness and transparency.
According to NELFUND, two main reasons informed this policy.
1. First, Nigeria’s tertiary institutions do not operate under a harmonised academic calendar, making it necessary to align disbursements with each school’s schedule.
2. Second, the move is to “avoid the risk of duplicate upkeep payments to the same student within the same institution but different academic sessions.”
The agency stated that this approach will ensure proper management of upkeep payments while reflecting the realities of academic timetables across universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education.
On the issue of loan application rejections, NELFUND explained that such outcomes may occur at different stages.
At the initial application stage, students may be rejected due to incomplete or unclear documentation, incorrect account details, or mismatched names across official records.
At the institutional verification stage, rejection may happen if the applicant’s school has not verified or has declined to approve details for its own reasons.
“All rejection reasons are clearly stated on each applicant’s dashboard for transparency,” the agency said.
Furthermore, at the upkeep application stage, rejections may also occur if the academic session being applied for has already closed.
In this case, students are advised to reapply under the new academic session or resolve the issues flagged in order to access both institutional charges and upkeep for that year.
NELFUND reassured the public that “no eligible applicant will be denied access to the loan scheme, provided applications are submitted with accurate documentation and within the relevant academic session.”