How to complete NELFUND student loan verification before portal closes

The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has reopened its student verification portal for a final 48-hour window, giving tertiary institutions that missed the earlier deadline one last chance to complete the process for the 2024/2025 academic session.

This was disclosed in a statement issued on Friday by the Director of Strategic Communications at NELFUND, Mrs. Oseyemi Oluwatuyi. She said the portal would be accessible from 12:00 a.m. on Sunday, October 12, to 12:00 a.m. on Tuesday, October 14, 2025.

According to her, the short extension is meant to ensure that all eligible students are properly captured and verified by their respective institutions as part of the ongoing 2024/2025 NELFUND loan application exercise.

Oluwatuyi urged all affected institutions to take full advantage of the opportunity, warning that failure to complete the verification process within the stipulated period would result in exclusion from the current loan cycle. She noted that such a situation would ultimately disadvantage students who are the intended beneficiaries of the scheme.

She added that, in the interest of transparency and accountability, NELFUND would publish the list of institutions that failed to complete the verification exercise within the deadline.

How Institutions Can Complete the Verification Process

Institutions are advised to follow the outlined steps to avoid disqualification:

First, they should log in to the NELFUND Student Verification Portal through the official website and access the Student Verification System (SVS). They must ensure that all student records are accurate, with names, matriculation numbers and admission details matching the school’s official records.

Next, they are to upload the verified list of eligible students on the portal, ensuring the data meets NELFUND’s required format. Upon successful upload, the system will issue a confirmation message acknowledging receipt. Institutions should then notify their students once verification is complete so they can monitor their loan application status.

Oluwatuyi emphasized that institutions which fail to complete the process within the 48-hour window would forfeit their participation in the ongoing loan cycle.

NELFUND had earlier announced that applications not verified by October 8, 2025, were automatically cancelled. The Fund also stated that the 2025/2026 student loan application portal would open in the second week of October 2025 and remain accessible until January 2026.

Reiterating NELFUND’s commitment to equitable access to higher education, Oluwatuyi said the Fund would continue to ensure transparent and inclusive management of the scheme to guarantee that no eligible student is left behind due to administrative lapses.