The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has raised concerns over low student applications for its loan at the Rivers State University.

The managing director, NELFUND, Akintunde Sawyerr, raised the concerns during a strategic engagement and sensitisation campaign on the fund operations on Tuesday in Port Harcourt.

Represented by Zino Ugboma, the director of administration at NELFUND, Mr Sawyerr said it was troubling that only 1,500 students out of a nearly 40,000-student capacity in the school applied for the loan.

He said the visit was to strengthen ties with the university to improve the troubling statistics related to students’ participation in their programmes.

According to Mr Sawyer, the statistics showed a low registration rate, with 3,000 applications from the University of Port Harcourt and 1,500 from the state university.

“Going through our records, we discovered something that is not too pleasant in relation to your university, and we are here to have a talk with the management.

“We want to know what the problem is because the money is there and it is meant to be disbursed to these young people. Let us work together to solve this,” he said.

Responding, the university’s vice chancellor, Isaac Zeb-Obipi, acknowledged the troubling gap and pledged to address the issue.

Represented by the Deputy Vice Chancellor, Administration, Victor Akujuru, he said the meeting marked a critical point in the relationship between the two institutions.

He promised that both organisations would work collaboratively to address the concerns raised in the coming weeks.

On his part, the university’s director of ICT, Sunny Orike, said the application process involved multiple steps, which many students failed to follow through.

He assured the unit would work with the students to address the challenge and bridge the gap.

The president, Student Union Government (SUG) of the institution, Rizi Owabie, reaffirmed the union’s support for the government-backed funding programme.

(NAN)