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The Nigerian Education Loan Fund disbursed 1.5 billion naira to 6,129 students at three institutions for the 2025/2026 academic session, the agency said Thursday, with the largest share, more than 1.3 billion naira across five tranches, going to a university in Ekiti State.
NELFUND announced the disbursement in an update on its verified X account, naming Bamidele Olumilua University of Education, Science and Technology in Ekiti State, Sikiru Adetona College of Education, Science and Technology in Ogun State, and the Edo State College of Nursing Sciences in Benin City as the beneficiary institutions for this round of payments.
Bamidele Olumilua University, also known as BOUESTI, received the bulk of the funds: 1,360,920,800 naira spread across five tranches, covering 5,396 students. Sikiru Adetona College, located in Omu-Ajose, Ogun State, received 104,530,000 naira for 680 students. The Edo State College of Nursing Sciences received the smallest allocation, 36,485,000 naira, covering 53 students. Combined, the three institutions account for the full 6,129 student beneficiaries and the total 1.5 billion naira disbursed for the session.
All three institutions have confirmed receipt of the funds in acknowledgement letters seen by Channels Television. At Sikiru Adetona College, Registrar Dr. Bukola Makinde said the money had already reached individual students’ bank accounts. She described the disbursement as allowing students to pursue an “academic progress” that is financially unencumbered.
The Edo State College of Nursing Sciences’ Provost, Mabel Omobude, pledged that the funds would be applied strictly to their intended educational purposes. She said the institution remains committed to “compliance, transparency, and accountability” in managing the loan facility.
BOUESTI Vice-Chancellor Prof. Andrew Babatunde Omojola confirmed his institution received the full sum owed across the five approved tranches for the academic session. He credited NELFUND’s leadership, singling out the agency’s Managing Director/CEO, for what he called the scheme’s “efforts and efficiency” in reaching students nationwide.
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NELFUND was established to provide interest-free loans to Nigerian students in tertiary institutions, part of a federal policy push to widen access to higher education following the removal of earlier student loan schemes. The fund has disbursed money in tranches to universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education across the country since its rollout, with disbursement figures released periodically through the agency’s official channels rather than a single consolidated report.
The disparity in disbursement size among the three institutions traces largely to enrollment scale. BOUESTI’s 5,396 beneficiaries dwarf the 680 students at Sikiru Adetona College and the 53 at the Edo State College of Nursing Sciences, a nursing-focused institution with a comparatively small student population. The five-tranche structure at BOUESTI also points to a rolling disbursement process rather than a single lump-sum payment, suggesting NELFUND processed the university’s loans in batches as verification and account details were confirmed for successive groups of students.
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For students at the three institutions, the immediate effect is direct: loan funds sitting in personal bank accounts rather than pending in an administrative pipeline. Nigerian tertiary students have in past academic sessions reported delays between loan approval and actual disbursement, a gap that fueled criticism of NELFUND’s rollout timeline. Thursday’s confirmation from all three institutions, delivered through formal acknowledgement letters rather than informal statements, indicates the agency is tracking closure on this round of payments through documented receipts.
None of the three institutions’ representatives who commented, Makinde, Omobude, and Omojola, addressed whether further tranches remain outstanding for their student populations beyond the figures NELFUND disclosed Thursday. Omojola’s statement referenced “five tranches” for BOUESTI as the total payment for the session, implying that installment is now complete for that university’s enrolled beneficiaries under the current academic year’s allocation.
