The newly appointed Principal and Chief Executive of the Petroleum Training Institute, Effurun in Delta State, Dr. Samual Onoji, has tasked the students of the institute to take advantage of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund to ease off their financial challenges.
Onoji gave the charge while hosting the Managing Director of NELFUND, Akintunde Sawyerr and his team who paid a courtesy visit to the Institute in Effurun on Monday.
The PTI boss highlighted that NELFUND was established to provide financial assistance to students nationwide hence the need for students of the institute to take advantage of the opportunity.
The visiting Managing Director of NELFUND, Akintunde Sawyerr, had earlier informed the students that “NELFUND is open to both new and existing students in tertiary institutions in Nigeria.
“The body will disburse the money within reasonable days of successful applications.”
According to the NELFUND Managing Director, “The loan provides financial support to qualified Nigerian students for tuition fees and other charges, and for their upkeep during their studies in approved tertiary academic institutions and/or vocational and skills acquisition institutions within Nigeria.”
Sawyerr encouraged students to avail themselves of the opportunities provided by NELFUND to better their wellbeing while in school, pointing out that “the Nigerian Education Loan Fund is an intervention agency set up by the Federal Government.”
He disclosed that NELFUND has disbursed over N104bn to 613,734 students from Nigerian tertiary institutions since inception and projected that beneficiaries of the scheme may hit an estimated N2.1 million.
The disbursed funds according to him encompass institutional fees paid directly to the institutions of applicants and upkeep loans paid directly to the account number provided by the applicants.
The NELFUND Managing Director spoke further, “We are responsible for students in tertiary institutions that are government-owned such as polytechnics where PTI is classified, universities and colleges of education.
“The loan scheme is strictly for students in tertiary institutions in line with the building principles and law.
“We have about 417,000 students who have registered on our portals and about 328,000 who have actually applied. Some have been processed, many have been looked at and most of them will get the loan.”
