The Managing Director of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, Dr. Akintunde Sawyerr, says students of higher institutions based in Nigeria’s south are not applying for student loan because they doubt its viability.
Sawyerr said this when he briefed State House correspondents after the launch of the disbursement of loans to applicants by President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Wednesday.
He noted that more students from the north have applied for the loans owing to better coordination by tertiary institutions in the region.
“In the southern part of the country, there’s growing awareness and interest. There’s been a lot of scepticism, and I think the most sceptical parts of the country are in the South; they question everything: is it true? Is it real? Is it a scam?
“And I think what you witnessed today with us actually starting this disbursement programme is to say that ‘this is not NO FUND. This is NELFUND.’
“The zones with the highest, I can say to you that institutions in the north of the country have been very proactive at supporting and helping their students and providing their data to us,” Sawyerr said.
He assured Nigerians that the early scepticism will dissipate as more loans are disbursed.
“So, that’s where the leaning is currently. But that (high adoption in the north) is to be expected because they seem very well organised in terms of networking in the northern part of the country.
“So, I think we’ll see the scepticism that you can find mainly in the southern part begin to disappear when we start paying out,” he added.
