The Nigerian Education Loan Fund has introduced a token system to stop students from paying school fees twice and to eliminate the refund complications that have trailed the student loan scheme.
Managing Director Akintunde Sawyerr announced on Wednesday that the fund had begun piloting the tokenised payment system, with nearly 400,000 applications already received under the ongoing process . Under the new arrangement, students will use an application on their phones to authorise payments from their approved loan funds directly to their institutions, rather than the fund transferring money to schools without the student's knowledge.
Sawyerr said the change was forced by a painful discovery: delays in notifying students that NELFUND had already paid their fees had led some beneficiaries to pay again, creating a backlog of refund cases. He described the situation as a genuine error, not fraud, but one that left cash-strapped students waiting for money they had borrowed from family members to survive .
The fund has also placed about 34 tertiary institutions under investigation over allegations that they failed to refund students whose fees were paid twice, with a five-member team including anti-corruption operatives already visiting one of the accused schools . Sawyerr admitted NELFUND lacks the power to arrest or prosecute, leaving affected students to petition the EFCC and ICPC directly.
Under the token model, the money never enters the student's personal account. The token is tied to a specific institution, and the student must push a button on their phone to release the funds to the school. Sawyerr summed up the philosophy simply: "We're not giving the students money, but we're giving them power" .
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