The Nigerian Education Loan Fund has begun a nationwide sensitisation campaign targeting 34 Ministries, Departments and Agencies, as well as military, police and immigration barracks, to increase awareness of its student loan scheme.
The Director of SERVICOM at NELFUND, Olusola Fowobaje, disclosed this during a sensitisation engagement, tagged Roadshow, with civil servants at the Ministry of Regional Development in Abuja.
Fowobaje said the initiative was designed to take information about the Fund’s educational financing opportunities directly to government employees, parents and guardians whose children and dependants might require financial assistance to pursue higher education.
He explained that the campaign would cover 34 ministries before extending to military formations, police and immigration barracks across the country.
According to him, the exercise was part of the management’s efforts to expand public awareness of the scheme, address misconceptions and encourage more eligible Nigerians to benefit from the government-backed facility.
Fowobaje said the student loan programme had two major components: institutional fees and upkeep allowances. While the institutional loan covers approved school fees, eligible beneficiaries also receive a monthly upkeep allowance of N20,000.
He described the roadshow as a door-to-door sensitisation exercise aimed at taking the Fund’s services to government institutions and ensuring that civil servants could pass the information to their children and dependants.
“We’ve done one today, and it is tagged roadshow. We call it roadshow. It’s just another name for sensitisation. That is a door-to-door sensitisation in ministries.
“We are covering 34 ministries, and he said further that we should cover all the barracks, military barracks, police barracks, immigration, and what have you. And we are doing that. We are much more than capable of handling that,” he said.
The SERVICOM director said the campaign would extend beyond Abuja to other parts of the country, adding that NELFUND management and staff had been deployed to different locations to explain the Fund’s mandate, objectives and benefits.
He also dismissed misconceptions surrounding the scheme, assuring prospective applicants that beneficiaries would not be prevented from travelling or arrested simply for accessing the loan.
Fowobaje further said the application process was technology-driven, transparent and accessible, stressing that applicants did not need personal connections or special intervention to secure the facility.
He said the initiative was also intended to address financial constraints forcing some students to abandon their education, while promoting equitable access to higher education.
According to him, improving access to educational financing would strengthen human capital development, increase productivity and help address challenges associated with illiteracy and insecurity.
The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Regional Development, Mary Ada Ogbe, said the engagement was organised to provide ministry officials with comprehensive information about the loan scheme and its benefits.
She explained that the meeting, organised in collaboration with NELFUND, was aimed at ensuring that directors and heads of units understood the programme and were equipped to disseminate the information to other staff members.
Ogbe said the engagement was the first phase of a broader sensitisation exercise that would subsequently be extended to other employees of the ministry.
She urged participants to use the opportunity to seek clarification on issues relating to the scheme, while expressing the ministry’s readiness to collaborate with NELFUND to expand awareness and participation.
