A college in Enugu made the NELFUND loan compulsory for its students this month. On Wednesday, NELFUND itself said it isn’t.
The memo came from Enugu State College of Education (Technical), dated 6 October and signed by the Acting Registrar. It told fresh and returning NCE and degree students to apply for the 2026/2027 session through the college’s NELFUND desk officer.
Now some of you are thinking, it’s government money, what’s the harm if the school fills the form for everybody. The harm is that it isn’t free money. It’s a loan, and the name on the loan is yours, not the school’s.
Is the NELFUND loan compulsory? NELFUND says no
NELFUND answered in a statement issued in Abuja on 21 October through its Director of Strategic Communications, Oseyemi Oluwatuyi. The line that matters is this one: “The student loan scheme is a support mechanism, not an obligation.”
The Fund went further. Students who don’t need support are under no obligation to apply for or access the loan, and making the NELFUND loan compulsory for everybody would run against the reason the scheme exists. Nairametrics reported both the memo and the statement the same day.
The Whistler also reported claims that some students were warned they could be barred from exams if they didn’t comply. That warning comes from the reports, not from the wording of the memo as published, so treat it as a claim until somebody shows it on paper.
Why a school would want everybody on the loan
Follow the money and it makes sense. NELFUND pays tuition straight to the institution, so the school doesn’t wait for parents, doesn’t chase debtors to the bursary, and doesn’t carry students owing fees into exam week. For a bursar, every student on the loan is a student whose fees arrive on time from Abuja.
That’s convenient for the bursary. It doesn’t make it right for you, because the bursary isn’t the one repaying it after NYSC.
What you are agreeing to when you take it
NELFUND put it plainly in the same statement: “Like every financial facility, it comes with repayment obligations.” The loan carries no interest, which is a real advantage, and our full guide to applying for the NELFUND student loan explains how repayment from your salary works. Interest-free still means you pay back every naira you borrowed.
Before you agree to anything, check these for yourself:
- Can your family pay this session’s fees without it? If they can, there’s nothing you need to borrow for.
- Have your fees for this session already been paid? A loan on top of that only creates a tuition refund you will have to chase from the school.
- Do you understand the loan is tied to your own NIN and BVN, and stays with you after you leave that school?
- Would you be taking it only because a lecturer or a desk officer said everybody must?
If the last point is the only reason, that’s not a reason. NELFUND has now said so itself.
If your school says everybody must apply
Don’t fight it alone in a lecturer’s office, and don’t quietly hand over your details either. Take it step by step.
- Get the instruction in writing. A memo, a notice, or a broadcast from an official with a name and a date on it. Screenshot it and keep a copy off your phone.
- Keep NELFUND’s position handy. The statement is on the record, and the official NELFUND website is where any further guidance from the Fund will appear.
- Go through your student union. One student questioning a registrar gets ignored, but an SUG raising it for a whole faculty gets a meeting.
- Never hand your NIN, BVN, portal login or email password to a desk officer so they can “do it for you”. If you decide to apply, you apply yourself on portal.nelf.gov.ng and you see every screen before you press submit.
- If anybody tells you you’ll miss exams over it, write down who said it and the date, and take that to student affairs with your SUG welfare officer.
Mistakes students are making with this
What students do: Let the desk officer fill the form for them, since “it’s for everybody anyway”.
Do this instead: Fill it yourself or don’t fill it at all. A form someone else submits in your name is still your debt.
What students do: Apply for a session their parents have already paid for, because the school said to.
Do this instead: If the fees are paid, there’s nothing to borrow for. If a loan lands after you’ve paid, claim the refund from your bursary in writing.
What students do: Ignore the instruction quietly and hope nobody notices.
Do this instead: Write a short note to your department saying you don’t need the loan this session, cite NELFUND’s 21 October statement, and keep a received copy.
Who should still apply
None of this is me telling you to run from NELFUND. If school fees are the reason you might defer, or your people are selling things to keep you in school, the loan is still the fairest borrowing you’ll find in this country, and we’ve said that before.
Freshers still sorting their clearance documents and the acceptance fee should know the loan is there when they need it. The question was never whether the NELFUND loan is good. The question is who decides, and for a debt in your own name, the person deciding should be you. Nobody can make the NELFUND loan compulsory for you just by putting it in a memo.
Na your name dey that loan o, so na you go decide.
Where to go from here
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