Latest News on NELFUND Student Loan Approval, Disbursement Today, November 17, 2025

The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has revealed that its student loan initiative will soon be expanded to include applicants pursuing vocational training and skills acquisition courses.

Managing Director of NELFUND, Akintunde Sawyerr, made the disclosure during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Sunday in Abuja.

According to him, the planned extension is in line with the Federal Government’s wider agenda to strengthen both education and skills development in the country.

He noted that the initiative further demonstrates President Bola Tinubu’s drive for an inclusive model of human capital growth that goes beyond conventional university pathways.

In his remarks, Sawyerr highlighted the importance of technical expertise to Nigeria’s progress. “No nation is built solely by philosophers.

It is very important to have people who can use their hands, energy, strength, and skills to put into action the clever ideas that come from those emerging from academic institutions,”** he stated.

Sawyerr pointed out that although NELFUND has mainly targeted tertiary institution students since its establishment, work is ongoing to open the loan window to trainees in technical and vocational centres in different parts of the country.

He stressed that the country’s next stage of economic and industrial advancement depends on striking a balance between theory and practical competence.

“At NELFUND, we have a mandate to also do vocational skills.

We have not started yet, but I know that the President Bola Tinubu administration has ensured that there is full coverage around the skills issue.

The Ministry of Youth Development is doing skills, the Ministry of Education is involved in skills and the Ministry of Digital Economy is involved in IT soft skills.

So, skills are something that many departments of government have been charged with doing.

And I think it is very clear that an engineer who can build, is better than an engineer who can just design.

The stage that we are in this country now is what I would call, the design, build, and operate stage,” he added.