Universities in the South-South region have attributed the delay in the payment of student loans under the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) scheme to technical hitches, late registration, and poor network.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) survey on delay by the educational institutions in the payment of students under the NELFUND scheme shows that the students were being paid but not as fast as they wanted.
Stakeholders who reacted to the survey conducted in Cross River, Akwa Ibom and Rivers, urged the students to exercise patience, saying that the loan would be paid to all who registered.
In Cross River, the University of Calabar (UNICAL) cited technical hitches in the delay of payment and urged students to remain patient as the payments were being processed in batches.
The university’s NELFUND Desk Officer, Mrs. Elizabeth Otu Effiwatt, said payments had been completed for some batches, while others were undergoing processing for disbursement.
Effiwatt said about 3,000 students had received refunds, adding that the university had completed batches one to eight, while batches nine and 10 were scheduled for payment.
She said technical hitches disrupted the conclusion of batch nine, and that batch 10 had been escalated to the university bursar for processing.
According to her, refunds cannot be completed in one day because the exercise is continuous, and updates have been communicated through a dedicated WhatsApp platform.
Reacting to allegations of delays, Effiwatt said claims that refunds were not being processed did not reflect the situation at UNICAL.
“The university received ₦979,891,400 for 10,071 students across various departments under the NELFUND programme.
“The university had completed some refund batches, covering 1,089 students, while over 3,000 students used NELFUND loans to pay tuition fees,” she said.
She noted that the institution had replaced its manual refund process with an automated portal managed by the Directorate of ICT to improve efficiency and eliminate operational bottlenecks.
According to her, the new system was developed from experiences gained during earlier refund exercises to provide a more technology-driven and transparent process.
Effiwatt said the university had already received 2,090 refund applications through the new portal, with payments currently being processed.
However, the institution’s beneficiaries of the scheme had expressed frustration over delays in the refund of tuition fees they had already paid.
The students, who did not mention their names for fear of victimisation, said most beneficiaries were yet to receive refunds, contrary to the university management’s claims.
They said the delay had created confusion and frustration, especially for students who borrowed money or made sacrifices to meet tuition payment deadlines.
A student from the Faculty of Environmental Science said that the affected beneficiaries created a WhatsApp platform where refund updates were shared, but no member had confirmed receiving any payment.
Another student in the Faculty of Arts said the loan scheme dashboards of many students showed disbursement for the 2025/2026 academic session, but the university had not acknowledged receiving the funds.
She said the situation had left beneficiaries uncertain as some of them borrowed to pay the tuition early, expecting refunds after NELFUND disbursement
She said the institution’s NELFUND Desk Officer informed them that the university management had approved the refund process, but the refunds remained unpaid.
The students called for a thorough investigation into the process of refund, urging authorities to hold anyone found culpable accountable.
In Akwa Ibom, Mr Semfon Godwin, a student of University of Uyo and a beneficiary of the loan, identified delayed approval of payment as the reason for the delay in students loan disbursements .
He said the federal government should mandate the institutions to promptly release the money once it was paid, instead of waiting for a letter to be approved before payment.
He applauded the federal government for the loan saying it had reduced financial burden on many students.
”NELFUND has helped many of us; no student drops out now, unlike before.
“For me, I am at 300 level now, and they have paid my school fees till my final year.
”The only issue we are having is the upkeep, which I last received in October, 2025, but we are hopeful they will pay,” he said.
He said some students were afraid of enrolling in scheme due to uncertainties about repayment and urged them to take advantage of the opportunity if needed and graduate first.
Similarly, Mr Elijah Kofi, Students’ Union President, Akwa Ibom State University (AKSU), described NELFUND as a welcome development that had assisted indigent students to continue their education uninterrupted.
Kofi said that more than 400 students of the institution had benefitted from the scheme to pay their school fees and their upkeep support.
”For the school fees, the students registered and got verified; the money was disbursed and the university used the money to pay for their school fees accordingly,” he said.
The SUG president said that the management of AKSU had been reimbursing students accordingly, but noted the delay in reimbursement of the N20, 000 monthly upkeep.
He noted that the upkeep was suspended for three months by the scheme, and when it resumed, only one month out of the three was paid to the students.
He added that the school authority had refunded all final year students, while other students who paid school fees before the fund release were yet to be refunded.
”We have agreed that instead of refund, AKSU should roll over the money to pay for their school fees in subsequent sessions,” Kofi said.
Mr Inem Akpan, Director of Information, AKSU, said that the university had been diligent with the payment procedures and was not withholding payments to the beneficiaries of the scheme.
On his part, Mr Emmanuel Edem, a parent, said he earlier enrolled his son into NELFUND, but he later opted out due to stringent conditions for the beneficiaries after graduation.
Edem said that one of the conditions was that the beneficiaries must repay the loans when he started working, and would not travel out of Nigeria until the loans were repaid.
In Rivers, Prof. Sunny Orike, Director of Information and Communication Technology, Rivers State University (RSU), said timely application would ensure faster loan disbursement, as the beneficiaries had increased since 2023/2024 academic session when the scheme commenced.
He explained that 782 students benefited in the first year, while the figure rose to 1,511 in the 2024/2025 session, and 5,638 in the 2025/2026 session.
He said, ”NELFUND disburses approved tuition fees directly to the university, which then credits students’ accounts and refunds those who had already paid their fees.”
He explained that initially, the university was fast in crediting students’ portals due to the relatively small number of the beneficiaries, but processing payments became more challenging as applications increased.
“It takes an average of 15 minutes, depending on network strength, to process payments for one student, including allocating the various components of the fees; processing payments for more than 5,000 students naturally takes several weeks,” he said.
The director said the delay in processing the large volumes of payments led some students to wrongly believe that the university was withholding the funds.
He added that payments were ongoing, but because of the huge number of beneficiaries, the process was slower than many students expected.
Orike disclosed that all 17 batches of beneficiaries for the 2025/2026 academic session had received their approved disbursements.
He said the university allowed students whose loans had been approved but not yet credited to sit for first-semester examinations, explaining that the arrangement ensured that eligible students were not disadvantaged while awaiting disbursement.
He advised students who could afford it to pay their tuition fees first and obtain refunds after presenting evidence of payment to the university bursary.
“That process is often quicker and enables students to complete their registration and examinations without necessary delays,” he said.
Orike urged students to apply immediately whenever the NELFUND portal opened instead of waiting until the deadline.
“For the 2025/2026 session, the portal opened on Oct. 23, 2025 and closed on March 11, 2026, after several extensions. Students should always apply early,” he said.
He said the university had organised awareness campaigns, rallies and sensitisation programmes across its campuses to educate students on the application process.
The ICT director commended NELFUND for releasing approved funds promptly and described the loan as interest-free.
He, however, expressed concern that some students collected tuition fees from their parents or guardians while also applying for the loan.
“There have been cases where parents visited the university only to discover that their children had obtained student loans after collecting tuition fees from them.
”The scheme is a loan, not a grant. It is not a free launch. Beneficiaries will still repay the money,” he said.
He added that NELFUND also provided a monthly upkeep allowance of N20,000 to support students during their studies.
Also speaking, Mr Osinachi Joseph, the Public Relations Officer of the RSU Students’ Union Government (SUG), confirmed that students had been receiving their approved loans on time.
He said the only significant complaints came at the beginning of the current academic session, but the SUG responded by producing educational videos to guide students through the application process.“Since then, complaints about accessing the loan have reduced significantly,” he added.
