The House Committee on Student Loans and Higher Education Financing has lauded the performance of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND).

The committee’s chairman, Gboyega Isiaka (APC-Ogun), made the commendation at an oversight function in Abuja on Monday.

He said the agency’s progress and statistics were satisfactory, saying that the student loan initiative was a positive step the presidency took.

Mr Isiaka emphasised the need for increased public sensitisation, particularly in the southern part of the country where application numbers were lower than expected.

He also acknowledged areas for improvement and pledged the committee’s continued support and oversight.

Earlier, NELFUND managing director Akintunde Sawyerr told the committee that the agency had disbursed N12 billion in student loans.

He said the agency had received 610,000 applications. Out of this number, 321,000 have been examined, and some have been approved and sent for validation.

“In terms of what we have disbursed so far, it is about N12 billion. I believe we are going to be doing some further disbursements this week which will take that number to about 20 billion.

“We have something in the region of 120,000 people who have actually received stipends or about to,” he said.

Mr Sawyerr said the fund processes over 2,000 applications daily and is committed to ensuring fairness in loan disbursement across all regions.

The NELFUND managing director said 52,000 additional loans were approved last week for disbursement to institutions and individuals.

Mr Sawyerr stated that managing a fund of this size without face-to-face interactions posed fraud risks.

He explained that the agency meticulously reviewed each application individually to avoid fraud.

(NAN)