- No Student Loan Repayment Yet, Presidency Dismisses Claims
- Dada explained that the student loan scheme has a clearly defined moratorium period before repayment can commence
- Says the loan scheme itself has not existed long enough for any beneficiary to qualify for repayment
The Federal Government has dismissed claims that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has directed Nigerian students to begin repaying loans obtained under the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) scheme.
Eko Hot Blog reports that the clarification followed reports suggesting that beneficiaries of the student loan programme had been asked to start repayment, a development that sparked concerns among students and the general public.
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Reacting on Saturday, a presidential media aide, Olusegun Dada, urged Nigerians to disregard the reports, describing them as misleading and inaccurate.
In a statement posted on his official X (formerly Twitter) handle, Dada explained that the student loan scheme has a clearly defined moratorium period before repayment can commence.
“As reported from inception, repayment of the student loan will not commence until a moratorium period of two years after completion of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has been reached by the applicants,” he stated.
He added that the loan scheme itself has not existed long enough for any beneficiary to qualify for repayment.
“As it stands, the scheme will clock two years in March 2026 from the day when the first applications were made, and not a single one of the applicants would have reached the repayment stage,” Dada said.
He urged the public to rely on official information from government sources and to ignore contrary claims circulating online.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government has continued to highlight the scale of support provided through the student loan initiative. The Acting Managing Director of NELFUND, Akintunde Sawyerr, recently disclosed that the agency has so far disbursed ₦174 billion to more than 800,000 students across about 263 tertiary institutions nationwide.
The student loan programme, a flagship education policy of the Tinubu administration, was introduced to expand access to higher education and ease financial pressure on students from low-income households.
Government officials have repeatedly stressed that the scheme is structured to be fair, transparent and non-punitive, with repayment tied to employment status and income, rather than immediate post-graduation demands.
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