By Adesina Wahab 

Barely a year into its introduction, controversy has started trailing the N20,000 monthly upkeep being given students in tertiary institutions by the Nigeria Education Loan Fund, NELFUND, also known as Student Loan Scheme.

With the inflation trend in the country, some people have taken to social media to call for a review of the amount, and also alleging that disbursements by the fund are done haphazardly. 

Writing on X, Big Virg said: “Apart from the fact that N20,000 per month for upkeep is extremely inconsiderate in the current economy, the payment itself is irregular and unpredictable. Students cannot plan feeding, transport or accommodation with a scheme that pauses without warning.

“Another major failure is lack of transparency. There is no clear explanation for delays, no proper public communication and no accountability when payments are skipped. Students are left guessing, refreshing dashboards and relying on rumours.

“The portal approval system is misleading. Students are shown an approved amount, yet NELFUND refuses to pay what it approved. Approval without full disbursement is deception, not support. There is also poor stakeholder engagement. Universities, students and even school bursaries are often unaware of payment timelines or changes. A national scheme should not operate like a secret club.

“Customer support is practically non-existent. Complaints go unanswered, emails are ignored and there is no effective help desk to resolve urgent student issues.

“The scheme shows zero understanding of academic calendars. Students applied for a session, were approved and verified, received payment only twice, and then were told to reapply for another session just to continue receiving funds meant for the same academic year. That is administrative incompetence.

NELFUND also fails in equity and fairness. Students who applied at the same time receive payments at different intervals or not at all, with no justification. That creates unnecessary hardship and resentment.

“Finally, the scheme lacks policy consistency. Rules change midstream, conditions shift without notice and students bear the consequences of poor planning by the administrators. A student loan scheme that cannot guarantee consistency, transparency and dignity is not a support system. It is a liability,”

However, another commentator on the same issue noted that the programme should be given time to properly evolve.

Omo Afariogun wrote, “They should scrap NELFUND because of its irregularities? You want me to still be stuck in 400 Level, or drop out from the university since 2024 right?

“Should we talk about how NELFUND has significantly cleansed our society and social media spaces from incessant GOFUNDME for school fees every session?

Millions of students should keep dropping out? Bro, I’m shocked. The initiative is barely more than two years old, and in working societies (your reference point), you don’t critique or fix systems by scrapping them. You make the systems efficient by improving them.

“Proffer solutions, not abolishment. Yes, NELFUND has been quite disappointing in some aspects. But, “should be scrapped”? No.

That’s not a sign of critical thinking.

Another commentator opined that the fear of repaying the loan could be the beginning of calls to scrap the fund.

“We need to start having an honest conversation Nigerians keep avoiding. Most times, we get consumed by our hatred for the government, that we forget to be objective and realistic.

Higher education cannot remain permanently subsidized: not in an economy that is already struggling to fund basic infrastructure, healthcare and public services. This is not cruelty. It is economic reality.

For decades, government carried the bulk of university funding through heavy subsidies. Students paid very little compared to the actual cost of training a graduate, especially in professional courses like Pharmacy, Medicine, Engineering and Sciences where laboratories, clinical training and equipment are expensive.

The reality is that: even when school fees were “cheap,” thousands of students still couldn’t afford them. We see GOFUNDME initiatives everywhere on the internet.

Departments ran internal fundraisers. Student leaders mobilized emergency donations every session. Classmates quietly dropped out long before any talk of NELFUND existed.

So the real issue was never just affordability: it was more about sustainability. Nigeria now has over 140 federal higher institutions. Hence, maintaining ultra-low school fees while expecting world-class facilities, modern laboratories, uninterrupted academic calendars and globally competitive research is financially impossible without massive taxation or borrowing.

“Check recent universities ranking: federal institutions keep dropping deep due to inability to compete in quality and infrastructure. We cannot demand UK-level educational system and welfare with Nigerian-level revenue.

At the same time, many Nigerians are willing to pay millions to study abroad in the UK, US, Italy, Egypt or private universities locally. Yet when it comes to public universities, the expectation suddenly becomes “free or almost free,” while still demanding global standards. That contradiction is part of our policy confusion.

“Education financing globally has shifted toward shared responsibility models, where government still supports education, but students also contribute through structured loan systems, grants, scholarships and income-based repayment.

That is the logic behind education loan schemes like NELFUND.

Is NELFUND perfect? Absolutely not!

There are serious issues: irregular payments, weak communication, poor transparency, inconsistent disbursement and administrative inefficiencies. These problems deserve strong criticism and urgent reforms.

But the existence of implementation problems does not invalidate the policy direction itself.

Scrapping a national non-interest student loan without a feasible and sustainable alternative simply returns us to an older system where:

Universities remain underfunded; infrastructure continues to outdate and fail; ASUU strikes persist; students rely on charity and GOFUNDME every session and thousands quietly abandon their degree programmes.

“For the education system we all dream of and demand, the way forward include: Reforming bad systems; demanding accountability and  improving implementation processes.

But abandoning structural solutions because they are imperfect only delays the hard economic decisions we must eventually make.

Now, to students applying for NELFUND.

If your long-term plan is “I will collect the loan and never repay,” or you’re waiting for government to magically forgive it later, you’re not fighting the system, you’re quietly helping to destroy a system other vulnerable students will depend on after you.

Education loans only survive when there is collective responsibility. No repayment culture means there’s no future funding for the next generation. And that generation includes your children, nephews, cousins, and the masses at large.

Also, anyone actively wishing for NELFUND to fail should think twice. When a public support system collapses, it is not politicians that suffer, but ordinary vulnerable students.

Failure simply gives corrupt leaders an excuse to abandon education financing entirely and avoid accountability for fixing what is broken.

God bless Nigeria, and may NELFUND succeed.