Managing Director of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), Akintunde Sawyerr, has announced that Nigerian students currently receiving the loan will not begin its repayment until two years after completing their National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).
Sawyerr who stated this on Saturday while featuring on a TVC News, noted that this applies to those secured jobs, and that the repayment requirements are on their employers.
He added that the employer will be deducting 10% of the employee’s salary and remitting to the Fund monthly.
“Two years after completion of their NYSC, there is a requirement for the loans to be paid back, but the requirement to pay the loan back is on the employer.
“For those who have managed to secure jobs, the employer goes to a database, he or she checks the name and the NIN number of the person who they’re about to employ.
“Then they contact NELFUND and say we’re about to employ this person and we’re going to start making deductions from their salary to the NELFUND.
“That deduction is 10% of that individual’s salary. At no point is the obligation on the individual to pay back themselves,” Sawyer said.
He also pointed out that those that are unemployed after NYSC are not under obligation to repay the loans while self-employed persons would repay the loans by themselves.
Sawyer pointed out that while the law that established NELFUND does not currently allow it to provide loans for Nigerian students in private higher institutions, President Bola Tinubu is considering extending it to them in the future.
“For now, we only give loans to students of public institutions because the law doesn’t allow us to give loans to private institutions.
“However, I’m very aware that His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has indicated that he would like, at some point in the future, to capture all,” he said.