The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) plans to replace its current tuition payment process with a digital token-based system that will allow students to pay their institutions directly while improving transparency and preventing duplicate payments.
NELFUND Managing Director, Akintunde Sawyerr, disclosed the planned reform during an interview on ARISE News.
According to him, the new system will give students a digital payment token that can be used to authorise tuition payments at their institutions without giving them unrestricted access to the funds.
“We’re looking at a tokenized system where the student has the funds effectively as a token on their telephone, and when they go to the bursary, they can effectively push a button that makes the payment, and then they’re allowed to carry on with classes,” Sawyerr said.
He explained that once the system is fully implemented, NELFUND will discontinue direct payments to tertiary institutions.
“Once we are able to successfully achieve that upgrade in the system, it will mean that we no longer pay the schools; the student pays the schools but through a token,” he added.
According to Sawyerr, the reform is intended to eliminate cases where students pay their tuition before NELFUND completes payment processing, leading to duplicate payments.
He noted that the agency deliberately chose not to transfer tuition loans directly into students’ bank accounts to prevent the diversion of education funds for other purposes.
“We chose not to pay students directly for the loans because that would take us into an entirely new area where students get paid for the fees, and they can then make the decision as to whether they want to go to school or not,” he said.
Sawyerr said the student loan programme was established to ensure that qualified Nigerians are not denied access to tertiary education because of financial constraints.
He added that while upkeep allowances are paid directly to students, tuition payments will continue to be processed through controlled channels to ensure the funds are used solely for educational purposes.
