Nigeria’s student loan programme, one of the signature education reforms of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, faces renewed scrutiny as the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) intensifies pressure on government authorities over concerns that access to higher education financing may be too restrictive for the students it was designed to support.
While student leaders have repeatedly welcomed the idea of an interest-free loan scheme, they argue that implementation challenges, verification hurdles, and concerns about eligibility requirements risk undermining the programme’s core objective of expanding access to tertiary education.
Why the Student Loan Scheme Matters
The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) was created following the enactment of the Student Loans Act in 2023 and subsequent amendments in 2024. The initiative seeks to remove financial barriers to higher education by providing loans for institutional charges and student upkeep. The programme officially commenced applications in 2024 and has been promoted as a key pillar of the administration’s education agenda.
The policy emerged against the backdrop of rising tuition fees across federal and state-owned institutions, worsening inflation, and declining household purchasing power. For many Nigerian families, university education has become increasingly difficult to finance without external support.
Much of the criticism stems from provisions that appeared in earlier versions of the student loan framework requiring applicants to provide guarantors, including senior civil servants, lawyers with significant post-call experience, judicial officers, or justices of the peace. These conditions generated immediate backlash from student groups and education advocates who argued that poor students would struggle to meet such requirements.