The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has announced June 24 as the release date for the names of institutions that submitted their students’ bio-data for upload to the organisation’s student verification system (SVS).

In a statement released by its spokesman, Nasir Ayitogo, NELFUND said the list of federal and state-owned institutions will be published to ensure transparency and encourage due access and participation in the scheme of undergraduate applicants and tertiary institutions in this critical exercise.

It noted that many federal institutions have already completed the exercise, having been the first wave, even as the process of uploading the data to NELFUND SVS is currently ongoing for the state-owned institutions.

According to the statement, for applicants to be able to access the fund, the individual’s details must feature in the institution’s submitted data set sent to the NELFUND SVS, where automatic applicant verification can then occur seamlessly.

While explaining that failure to have the verification exercise would invalidate the application process and disadvantage applicants, NELFUND said it was critical that the information provided by the tertiary institutions is complete and accurate.

It added, “The correlation or matching of JAMB numbers, Matriculation numbers and Admission numbers as well as applicants’ full names and dates of birth, will support the evaluation process.

“Applicants are urged to enter their data into the portal accurately when applying, and to ensure that their email addresses are entered without error.”

NELFUND, however, welcomed the cooperation it had received from the tertiary institutions at the state and federal levels.