The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), Mr Akintunde Sawyerr, has said the Federal Government’s student loan scheme has reduced the rate of tertiary institution dropouts by 20 per cent, while helping to keep thousands of Nigerian students in school.
Sawyerr, who disclosed this on Channels Television’s Politics Today, said the impact of the scheme should be measured not only by the amount of money disbursed or the number of applications processed, but by whether students who might otherwise have abandoned their education are able to remain in school and graduate.
According to him, research conducted on the programme provides evidence that the intervention is already producing that effect.
“There have been a number of studies done. There was one done recently by DAWN that showed that 84 per cent of people were able to get through their tertiary education, or were retained within the tertiary education space, because of this loan fund,” he said.
Sawyerr further claimed that other research had shown that “we reduced the dropout rate by 20 per cent last year.”
He said the evidence was also reflected in testimonies from students and families who, according to him, would have struggled to access or complete tertiary education without NELFund support.
“When you speak to families and students, as I do on a regular basis, they tell you that but for the fact that NELFund came along, they would never have been able to access tertiary education,” he said.
The NELFund boss said the intervention had also changed the way tertiary institutions respond to students facing financial difficulties.
He explained that many institutions previously operated their own funds and relied on donations to assist students who were at risk of dropping out, stating, however, that such arrangements had largely disappeared since NELFund became operational.
“Those funds have all but disappeared now because NELFund is there. The institutions tell the students: ‘Go and apply for the loan,’” he said.
Sawyerr’s claim comes against the backdrop of a wider debate over whether the government’s student loan programme is genuinely improving access to quality higher education or merely shifting the cost of tertiary education from the state to young Nigerians.
He acknowledged that the quality of education could not be separated from the stability of the tertiary education system, arguing that incessant strikes had historically disrupted students’ learning.
“If you look at the quality of education that people are getting when they have to stop and start—in school today, out of school tomorrow, and back in school the following day—it really diminishes the quality of what they are getting,” he said.
He said eliminating strikes was one of the first conditions necessary to improve the quality of tertiary education, alongside stronger standards, accreditation and more relevant courses.
Beyond the reported impact on retention, Sawyerr disclosed that NELFUND had already disbursed about N355 billion under the scheme.
Of the amount, N162 billion had gone to students as upkeep, while N192 billion had been paid for institutional charges across 319 government-owned tertiary institutions.
He said the Fund had processed 1.659 million applications, with just under one million students becoming beneficiaries.
The Fund has received about 1.8 million applications in total, leaving approximately 141,000 yet to be processed, according to Sawyerr.
He added that NELFund currently spends about N16 billion every month on student upkeep, with each beneficiary receiving N20,000.
But Sawyerr insisted that the ultimate test of the programme would not be the size of its financial commitment.
“When you are disbursing the quantum of money that we are disbursing, you have to look at impact. Otherwise, you are just shovelling money through the door,” he said.
He said NELFund was consequently beginning to examine what courses it was funding, what skills the economy required and what employment opportunities awaited beneficiaries after graduation.
“We are not just going to be paying for courses going forward,” Sawyerr said, adding that the Fund was using the programme as an opportunity to understand what was happening in the tertiary education sector and determine the direction it should take.
He said the government would have to increasingly align education funding with courses, skills and jobs capable of making a difference to Nigeria’s economy.
For NELFUND, therefore, the emerging measure of success is whether financial support keeps students in school, improves their prospects of completing their education and ultimately connects them to productive employment.
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