UNILAG CITS Director Sensitises Stakeholders on Students Loan Programme

By Gabriel Akpanudom

Professor Mohammed Amuda, Director of the University of Lagos Center for Information Technology and Systems has encouraged UNILAG students to take advantage of the Federal Government Loan Programme and not shy away from it. 

This was made known recently to UNILAG Sun through a released document by Professor Amuda titled: “Sensitisation of the University of Lagos Stakeholders on the Student Loan Programme of the Federal Government of Nigeria.” 

Sharing the document with UNILAG Sun, Professor Amuda disclosed that the purpose was to spread the news, encourage wider participation of all stakeholders in the university, and increase awareness so that more students would benefit from the programme. 

He explained that the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), was set up by the Federal Government to ensure that no one deserving of education is denied education on account of inability to pay tuition fees or service charges.

As stated in the document, all eligible and interested students can apply without any intermediary, and funding of the Loan is supported by an Act of the National Assembly.

According to him, the Loan programme is aimed to reduce financial stress on students and families irrespective of social status and is totally interest-free, and would only be due for repayment two (2) years after NYSC. However, only 10% of the beneficiary’s salary shall be deducted at source by the employer, while self-employed beneficiaries are required to remit 10% of their monthly profit to NELFUND.  

In addition, the programme allows unemployed beneficiaries to notify NELFUND every three (3) months if they are yet to get employment two years post-NYSC.

It was revealed that UNILAG students are not taking advantage of the loan programme as it onboarded 35,691 students, but only 817 applied. But, with some efforts at sensitisation, this has improved to 4,664 – still less than 20%. As stated in the document, in some other universities where 40, 000 students were onboarded, between 5,000 and 13,000 students applied. 

Prof. Amuda attributed the poor rate of application for the loan to students not being aware of the initiative due to poor sensitisation.

He further advised that every myth and misconception about NELFUND, such as family household income, religious aversion, and interest-based payment, should be discarded as they are not true.

He noted that there is no deadline, and all interested and eligible students are advised to visit www.nelfund.gov.ng to apply.Students who encounter difficulty during application should visit UNILAG ABS-CITS or send an email to dir-cits@unilag.edu.ng; or citshelpdesk@unilag.edu.ng for assistance.