Some university students who recently benefitted from the N20,000 stipend paid by the Nigerian Education Loan Fund have begun celebrating the receipt of the money.
While some took to social media to share their surprise, others narrated how they spent the money on foodstuffs. A few said it took the burden of care off their parents.
Financial constraint is a major challenge facing many students of public tertiary institutions in Nigeria.
The lack of funds has kept many young people out of school, as their parents or guardians cannot afford to sponsor their tertiary education.
A total of 20,371 students from six tertiary institutions were said to have been paid a sum of N20,000 each for their July stipends.
The institutions said to have benefitted from the disbursement are Bayero University, Kano State; Federal University, Dutsin-Ma, Katsina State; University of Ilorin, Kwara State; University of Benin, Edo State; University of Ibadan, Oyo State; and University of Maiduguri, Borno State.
NELFUND started the disbursement of the stipends to the students, whose school fees had already been paid by the agency, on August 5, 2024.
A 300-level student of the Department of Agronomy, University of Ibadan, Emmanuel John, told Sunday PUNCH he did not believe the money would be paid when he applied for it.
He said, “I applied for N240,000, to be disbursed as N20,00 monthly. I plan to use it to get foodstuffs monthly, and clear other bills.
“I was excited to get the money, because I initially thought it was going to be one of the several failed promises from the government.
“This will definitely ease the burden on my parents, as I will disturb them less.”
An Accounting student of the University of Maiduguri, Muhammed Buba, said the money came to him as a surprise, adding that he went to the market to get foodstuffs immediately after receiving the money.
He said, “I am not financially buoyant, so I get help from my friends and some other people who support my education.
“I received the money after coming back from school. I had earlier got some money from my parents, but the high cost of living and inflation didn’t allow me to get enough foodstuffs with the money. What I got could not last me for a month.
“I was thinking of how I would manage the little foodstuffs I had for a month when I received the N20,000 stipend from NELFUND. I was excited and rushed to market to buy more foodstuffs. I spent N15,000 on foodstuff, and saved N5000 to get some other things I might need.”
A student of the Faculty of Education, University of Ilorin, Malik Ibrahim, said upon getting the stipend, he celebrated with his friends.
He said, “I thought it was a scam alert when I received the message. I had just N100 in my account. When I checked my bank app and saw a balance of N20,100, and saw that the payment was from NELFUND, I was so happy, and could not contain my joy.
“I made a screenshot of the alert and posted it on my faculty’s WhatsApp group. Some other people acknowledged the payment as well. We went to school the following day to celebrate spending N1000 each. We declared that it was NELFUND we were spending.
“The money will take care of my transportation fare for this month. I appreciate Mr President for this.”
An excited student of the University of Maiduguri, Mudassir Muhammad, wrote on his X handle, “I don’t know why Nigerians still think that NELFUND is lying about the disbursement to certain institutions. I am from UNIMAID. I applied and received the money two days ago.”
Yet X user, @Absanchh, wrote, “I received mine too. No doubt, it meant a lot to me and I’m grateful to NELFUND and the president.”
Acknowledging the payment of the N20,000, another student of the University of Ibadan, Taiwo Egbeyemi, wrote “I have received my N20,000 upkeep.”
In a similar vein, a student of the Federal University of Dutsin-Ma, Tukur Muhammad, said, “I received my upkeep loan from NELFUND. I am really happy because the money will help me to carry out my academic activities.”
Our correspondent, however, learnt that there were complaints from some students that they did not get any payment.
Speaking with Sunday PUNCH, the Fund’s Director of Corporate Communications, Oseyemi Oluwatuyi, said some of the students had not been verified and approved.
Oluwatuyi said, “Not all students from the six institutions were paid because some of them have not yet been verified and approved. Some registered earlier than others. The students who have not been paid will receive their payments as soon as they are verified and approved.
“The six institutions were selected based on their academic calendars. They are all in their first semesters. More disbursements will be made to other institutions in the coming days. The N20,00 is also part of the loan; it is not a grant.”
Reacting to the development, the Academic Staff Union of Universities questioned why NELFUND could not disburse the loan to the universities simultaneously.
The union re-emphasised its opposition to it, saying it did not support the loan.
Speaking with Sunday PUNCH, the National President of ASUU, Emmanuel Osodeke, said, “I have not seen any student who received the money in my university. In Nigeria today, there are almost 100 public universities, and they are giving how many of them? Let us see what happens after all the universities have been paid.
“Why couldn’t NELFUND pay all the universities when all of them applied at the same time? We don’t know what is happening.
“As a union, we have said we are not in support of the loan. We are not even talking about the immediate effect; we are talking about the long-term effect.
“As a union of intellectuals, we look at the long-term, not the immediate. A student gets a loan and by the time they graduate, they have a debt of about N1m hanging on their necks, when they are not even sure of when they will get jobs. That’s what we are talking about.”
The Senate President of the National Association of Nigerian Students, Akinteye Babatunde, said the loan would reduce the financial pressure on the beneficiaries and their parents.
“We hope that the students will pay the loan when it’s time to pay back so that others coming behind can also benefit from it. It will surely ease the financial burden on the students and their parents,” he said.