Chris Awhawha
Students of the Petroleum Training Institute, (PTI) Effurun have been called upon to take advantage of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) to ease their financial challenges.
This call was made by Dr. Samuel E. Onoji, newly appointed Principal/Chief Executive, Petroleum Training Institute (PTI), Effurun, when Akintunde Sawyer Managing Director of NELFUND and his team paid him a courtesy visit on Monday in Effurun, Delta State.
The PTI boss explained that NELFUND was established to provide financial assistance to students nationwide hence the need for the Institute’s students to take advantage of the opportunity.
Earlier, the Managing Director of NELFUND, Akintunde Sawyerr informed the students that NELFUND is open to both new and existing students in tertiary institutions in Nigeria, he disclosed that the body will disburse the money within reasonable days of successful applications.
According to Sawyer, “the loan provides financial support to qualified Nigerian students for tuition fees and other charges, and for their upkeep during their studies in approved tertiary academic institutions and/or vocational and skills acquisition institutions within Nigeria.”
Sawyerr who enjoined students to avail themselves of the opportunities provided by NELFUND to better their wellbeing while in school, pointed out that the Nigerian Education Loan Fund is an intervention agency set up by the Federal Government, adding that the beneficiaries of student loans may hit an estimated 2.1 million.
He disclosed that NELFUND has disbursed over N104bn to 613,734 students from Nigerian tertiary institutions since inception nation wide.
The disbursed funds according to him encompasses institutional fees paid directly to the institutions of applicants and upkeep loans paid directly to the account number provided by the applicants.
The NELFUND Boss spoke further, “we are responsible for students in tertiary institutions that are government-owned such as polytechnics where PTI is classified, universities and colleges of education.”
He maintained that the loan scheme is strictly for students in tertiary institutions in line with the building principles and law.
“We have about 417,000 students who have registered on our portals and about 328,000 who have actually applied. Some have been processed, many have been looked at and most of them will get the loan,” he noted.