The Federal Government is considering a broader financing framework for the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), with liquid proceeds recovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), unclaimed dividends and dormant account funds potentially being deployed to strengthen the country’s rapidly expanding student loan programme.
The move comes at a critical point for NELFUND, which has witnessed unprecedented demand since the scheme was introduced. Its August 8, 2026 dashboard recorded 1,800,489 applications, of which 1,635,676 had been processed, while more than N322 billion had been disbursed to beneficiaries since the programme began two years ago.
The figures underscore both the popularity of the initiative and the scale of the financial commitment required to sustain it.
Rather than depending largely on discretionary government releases, the emerging model seeks to give NELFUND access to a wider pool of public resources, potentially creating a more predictable financial base for a programme whose obligations are growing with every application.
A new layer to NELFUND’s funding architecture
NELFUND already has a statutory funding mechanism under the Nigeria Tax Act 2025, which provides the Fund with an allocation from the four per cent Development Levy imposed on the accessible profits of qualifying companies.
Under the arrangement, NELFUND receives 15 per cent of the Development Levy, alongside other development and security-related funds that benefit from the levy.
The proposed access to additional resources would therefore not replace the statutory allocation. Instead, it would create another layer in NELFUND’s financing structure, linking funds that might otherwise remain idle or underutilised with a national programme designed to expand access to tertiary education.
The prospect is particularly significant given the pace at which the student loan scheme has grown.
With applications already nearing two million and disbursements exceeding N322 billion, the sustainability question has shifted. The challenge is no longer simply how to establish a student loan system, but how to ensure that the system can continue meeting demand over many years.
Tinubu meeting puts funding challenge in focus
The latest development also brings renewed attention to the roles being played by NELFUND Board Chairman Jim Ovia and Managing Director and Chief Executive Akintunde Sawyerr in shaping the institution’s long-term direction.
On August 4, President Bola Tinubu met Ovia and Sawyerr at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, where discussions centred on the progress of the student loan scheme, its challenges, opportunities for expansion and the need to ensure its sustainability.
The meeting came as NELFUND moved beyond its establishment phase and into a period of rapid expansion.
For the Fund’s leadership, the issue is increasingly about matching its growing national mandate with a financing structure capable of supporting it.
Ovia, as chairman of the board, has a strategic and governance role in guiding the institution as it expands. Sawyerr, together with his management team, is responsible for turning government policy into an operational programme capable of processing applications, making payments and serving students across the country.
Their engagement with the Presidency therefore carried significance beyond the immediate question of additional funding. It formed part of a wider effort to establish a financial framework that can support NELFUND as demand continues to rise.
EFCC funds provide an earlier precedent
There is already a precedent for using recovered proceeds to support the student loan scheme.
In August 2024, just months after NELFUND was established, President Tinubu directed the release of N50 billion from proceeds of crime recovered by the EFCC to support the programme.
The EFCC subsequently clarified that the money was not a donation from the anti-graft agency. Rather, it represented recovered proceeds that had already been remitted to the Federal Government.
NELFUND later confirmed receipt of the N50 billion.
That intervention provided the young scheme with an important financial boost at its inception. The renewed effort to make liquid recovered funds available to NELFUND can therefore be viewed as an extension of an approach that began during the programme’s formative period.
There is, however, an important distinction.
The proposal does not imply that seized houses, land, vehicles or other non-liquid assets recovered by the EFCC would simply be handed over to NELFUND. The focus is on liquid funds—resources that can actually be transferred and deployed to meet the Fund’s financial obligations.
Dormant accounts and unclaimed dividends enter the picture
The inclusion of unclaimed dividends and dormant account funds potentially widens the financing pool considerably.
Such resources represent money that exists within the financial system but, for various reasons, is not actively being accessed by its rightful owners at a given time.
Making any such funds available to NELFUND would, however, require clear rules governing their transfer, management and eventual treatment, particularly where beneficial ownership remains attached to individuals or entities.
For the student loan programme, the practical question is therefore not simply how much money may theoretically be available.
What matters is how much can actually be transferred, how frequently transfers will occur and under what conditions the funds can be used.
Those factors will determine whether the proposed arrangement becomes a significant and dependable source of finance or remains an occasional supplement to the Fund’s principal revenue streams.
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| President Bola Tinubu with NELFUND Board Chairman, Jim Ovia (left) and MD/Chief Executive, Akintunde Sawyerr |
NELFUND’s latest figures illustrate why the issue of predictable funding has become urgent.
The 1.8 million-plus applications recorded by August 8, alongside more than N322 billion in disbursements, point to a programme that is already operating on a scale far larger than many of the initiatives that preceded it.
As more students enter tertiary institutions and awareness of the loan scheme increases, applications could continue to rise.
The statutory allocation under the Nigeria Tax Act provides an important recurring source of income, but a rapidly expanding programme requires more than the existence of a funding source. It needs a financing system that allows its managers to forecast resources, plan disbursements and make commitments with reasonable certainty.
That predictability could become one of the most important tests of the emerging funding model.
Ovia and Sawyerr face a bigger institutional challenge
The funding push places additional responsibility on both Ovia and Sawyerr.
For Ovia, the task is to provide the strategic and governance direction required to ensure that NELFUND’s expanding mandate is matched by a credible and sustainable financial framework.
For Sawyerr, the challenge is more operational: ensuring that additional resources translate into efficient processing, timely payments and wider access for eligible students.
More funding, by itself, will not guarantee the success of the programme.
NELFUND will also have to maintain efficient systems, manage its growing portfolio and ensure that money reaches students and institutions without unnecessary delays.
The larger the programme becomes, the more important those administrative systems will be.
A broader financing base could nevertheless provide the Fund with greater certainty, allowing it to expand coverage while reducing the risk that shortages or delays in government releases disrupt payments.
Accountability will become increasingly important
The expansion of NELFUND’s financing sources also raises questions about transparency.
As additional public resources enter the system, there will be growing expectations for clear disclosure of how much money is transferred, where it comes from, how it is allocated and how much ultimately reaches beneficiaries and participating institutions.
This will be particularly important for recovered proceeds, dormant funds and unclaimed dividends, each of which may have different legal and administrative characteristics.
The success of the new funding architecture will therefore depend not only on the volume of resources mobilised but also on the strength of the governance mechanisms surrounding them.
A large pool of money can expand the programme. A transparent and accountable system is what can make that expansion sustainable.
From government programme to national institution
NELFUND has now reached a decisive stage.
Its first two years have demonstrated that there is substantial demand for student financing. The next phase will test whether the institution can develop the financial and administrative strength needed to support that demand over the long term.
The emerging model envisages the Nigeria Tax Act as a statutory foundation, supplemented by resources such as liquid EFCC recoveries, dormant account funds and unclaimed dividends.
If properly structured and consistently funded, the arrangement could give NELFUND something more valuable than a one-off financial boost: long-term funding visibility.
For Ovia and Sawyerr, that may ultimately be the most important measure of their engagement with the Presidency.
The immediate question is how much additional money can be mobilised.
The bigger question is whether they can help establish a student loan institution whose finances are resilient enough to withstand rising demand, changing government priorities and the passage of time.
If that happens, NELFUND could evolve from an ambitious government programme into a financially resilient national institution—one capable of sustaining access to higher education for generations of Nigerian students.
And the real legacy of the current funding push may not be the amount of money added to the Fund today, but whether it helps build a financing system strong enough to keep Nigeria’s student loan programme running tomorrow.